The Lost Code

Teachers

Teacher's guide

Preparation

The game should last approximately three hours. It is not designed to be played from start to finish in one sitting. It requires a great deal of exploration, research, and clear thinking.

Present the game as a challenge. Many texts must be read closely to tie them to the puzzles.

Play The Lost Code yourself to get to know the game and identify the educational benefits for your students in order to choose how the game can best be used to suit their needs.

Plan a class period to familiarize students with the various elements of the game and its environment.

Encourage students to pay close attention to photos, objects, and texts, as well as summaries in the form of concept networks. This is where the game really comes into its own.

Different ways to use the game

Present the game as an introduction to the historical concepts of colonies and industrialization.

Use the game as a starting point for more in-depth research on social and economic development. After playing the game, students could be asked to make parallels with today's economic conditions. What forms of economic dependency exist today? How can Quebecers increase their economic independence? In light of the historical transformations shown in the game, what does the future hold for us?

Use the concept networks. You can use examples from the game to help students build their own concept networks or ask them to study the concept networks to prepare for a class assignment.

Use the game to conclude a session of classroom teaching. Here, the game can take the form of an evaluation in which students must apply their knowledge to solve the historical puzzles.

Make the most of the tools available

You can interrupt the game at any time and pick up again where the student left off. The game is saved automatically.

Get students to collect information in the notepad. You can consult student notepads in the Managing a group section of the teacher's guide. Students can be given instructions to keep a record of their progress.

Ask students questions and get them to reply using the notepad.

Go back over the game texts with your students (in the Documents section) to develop their thinking.

Make the most of classroom time

Remind students of the importance of the historical theme (written at the top of the system security window). To access puzzles, players must enter keywords relating to the theme. Looking through the archives while the security system window is open is the best way to look for the required information.

Break the game up into stages or parts and ask students to search for the codes for the first historic site to learn more about the concept of the seigneurie. You can then continue the game in the second historic site to broaden their knowledge of industrialization.

Go directly to the security system puzzles without exploring the historic sites to collect the texts. The Table of Game Content has links to the various puzzles. The archives contain all the texts. Students can read them and use them for their research.

Divide the students into teams. You will have to ensure that they can hear the game audio.

Use a class period to introduce the students to the game and have them play it at home.

Encourage your students to explore the archives to find answers to the puzzles. The search tool allows you to quickly bring together all the texts relating to a particular concept.