The Lost Code
Teachers
Teacher's guide
BackEducational Analysis of the Game
Educational Value
The game was designed to introduce players to the very real world of museums so they can look at the objects surrounding them and learn more about their historical significance. Players can read object descriptions and consult historic texts in a meaningful environment. Only a careful reading of the texts will allow them to deactivate the security systems and continue their quest. Immersed in an environment steeped in history, players have to identify key concepts, make links between past and present, and understand Québec's social and economic evolution. Each deactivated system gives players access to part of the historian's notes (in the form of a concept network).
The Learning Process
The game requires players to think on several levels. A script contextualizes the educational activities in the form of a fun challenge and enables players to tell key historical elements apart, grasp their historical significance, and make the connections to understand social and economic issues. The game's effectiveness lies in the consistency between the historic sites, the choice of collection objects, and the milestones chosen to represent Québec's social and economic evolution. The diagram below outlines the relations between player actions, the game context, and the underlying thought processes for each of the 12 challenges.
Québec Education Program Competencies
The game is especially adapted to the « Analyze social realities from a historical viewpoint » competency from the history and citizenship program.
It is an excellent backgrounder to develop the « Interpret social realities by using the historical method » competency. Players are dropped into an investigation and, like investigators, have to search for clues, look around them, take notes, make links, and draw conclusions. In short, players take on the role of researchers and historians.
Ties to the History and Citizenship Program
The game touches on three social realities introduced in the first year of Cycle 2 of secondary school.
- The emergence of a society in New France. Key concept: the colony. Interpretation: The emergence of a society in New France from 1608 to 1760 from the perspective of colonization programs and the organization of the society and territory.
- The key concept of industrialization.
- An introduction to the key concept of the modernization of Québec society.