Introduce a Concept Through Discovery
Learners figure concepts out by investigating, instead of being told first and practicing after.
Implementing math games for sensemaking led to a 20% increase in math performance.
Math becomes the tool for solving real-world problems learners actually care about.
- 20% increase in math performance (p = 0.01)
- Teachers said it was more engaging than other available tools
"It taught me how to properly use data plots, and the quests made me feel like I was smart and could do crazy math work."
Using science storylines as anchoring phenomenon led to a 12% jump in science & engineering practices.
Middle schoolers investigate real problems — ecosystems, genetics, weather, Earth's systems — collecting evidence and building arguments. The original Tyto content that launched the platform, and the most-studied.
- 12% increase in science & engineering practices
- 96% of students wanted to learn more topics with the game
- Only 3% off-task conversation during collaborative play
"They felt like that was the way they should be learning science. That's what they called it. This is doing real science."
Exploration & Exposure
Learners get a feel for unfamiliar territory through experience — careers, topics, domains — instead of reading or watching about it.
Experiencing what a work day is like helped students decide if the career was a good fit for them.
Students experience a day as an electrician, nurse, or UX designer — making real professional decisions with real consequences.
- 4.86 / 5 for helping students determine career fit (vs. 3.69 for video, 3.79 for text)
- Students moved from generic, one-line career descriptions to a nuanced understanding of the actual day-to-day work
"Made me much more interested — it seems like a fun and interactive job where I could definitely fit in."
Apply Skills in Real-World Scenarios
Learners use what they've been taught in scenarios where the outcome actually matters, instead of filling out worksheets. Helps with task transfer and generalization.
Applying compliance training puts workers in real decisions — not just reading and forgetting.
Workers recognize hazards and make the right calls in realistic scenarios — applying protocols through decisions, not retention. The example below is a sample built on Tyto's framework: responding to a bloodborne pathogen exposure.
- Decision-based practice in realistic workplace contexts
- Same authoring framework as K–12 learning — built for transfer, not recall
Games provide the opportunity for authentic assessment, showing what learners know by what they do in a relevant context.
Every Tyto experience already generates rich evidence of learner understanding through in-game decisions and artifacts. The work now is framing and capturing that evidence for formal assessment contexts — formative, summative, and portfolio.
Want to work with us on this use case?
If you have a program where you want to explore using games for authentic assessment, we'd love to talk.
Read: our thinking on authentic assessment in games →“I have really enjoyed being able to see their thought process when trying to be successful on the project! We sure had some laughs and triumphant moments!”