Buzz!™: The Schools Quiz
Toward the end of 2005 we attended the Edinburgh International Entertainment Festival. At the event, Adrian Hall of the UK government's Department for Education and Skills presented the idea that educational content in games can be a great teaching aid. He said that in his experience it worked because children become engaged in education which is presented in an entertainment form.
After the event we met up with Adrian and talked about how we thought our Buzz!™ title might be a good fit. If we modified the questions to be real, syllabus-correct content then he felt it would be a sure fire hit in the classroom.
We began working in conjunction with Sony and the Department for Education and Skills to create Buzz!™: The Schools Quiz - a version of Buzz!™ for 7-11 year olds to be used in primary schools. The questions, which cover the entire syllabus, are written by teachers and the game includes 'teacher features' and game modes which let the teacher direct the game as they see fit. We conducted initial trials and the results were overwhelmingly positive. In fact, the children were playing well into their lunch breaks. That never happened when we were at school.
