Tyto Online helps students actually DO science, using a video game! We are now based in Buffalo, NY after receiving state-led investment.
The student experience focuses on building science and engineering practices with exploratory learning, such as building ecosystems to learn ecology or exploring coral bleaching as an anchoring phenomena to understand the impact of climate change. It covers middle school life and earth science, right now with four Modules: Cells to Organisms, Growth & Genetics, Ecosystems, and Weather & Climate. T
The winter holidays have arrived in Tyto Online! ☃️ Now through the end of January, enjoy exclusive Winter treats: from Cosmetics, decorations, unique pets, and more - there’s lots packed into this update! Get ready to deck the hall with boughs of jolly this winter before these items vanish with the season! ❄️
🎃👻 Halloween has arrived in Tyto Online! 👻🎃 Now through the end of November, enjoy exclusive Halloween treats: eerie decor, festive costumes, and limited-edition spooky pets like the ghoulycorn! Get ready to celebrate and deck out your space before these items vanish with the season! 🕸️✨
Before we ship this off to our first teacher for the pilot, I wanted to share something new we're trying out: consumable student "video game strategy guides" to use alongside the game + a printed teacher guide! We believe these will increase student engagement and help teachers solidify learning in an easier-to-implement way. We're running a pilot starting in a week, and will see if these become a regular offering alongside the game based on those results! 🤩
10/16/2024
We now have TWO new math storylines! And our Halloween update is back with a vengeance! 🧟
Help Cat Cafe owner Chanthira figure out how popular a new boba tea flavor will be, and help Ponycorn fan Chelsea investigate a content creator ad that sounds too good to be true.
Now live: new accessibility features to support students with vision impairments. In our testing, if a student can use software with magnification tools, they can now effectively play Tyto Online. We're working on even more improvements, so please reach out with any feedback or ideas if you play Tyto and need these types of supports!
Read more about the new features: https://intercom.help/tytoonline/en/articles/9992907-vision-accessibility-supports
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Here's a sneak peek of one of our newest math storylines, Catter in the Chai, where students help a Cat Cafe owner determine how much of a new flavor of boba tea she will sell. They build conceptual understanding of 'mean' in the process, as well as learning how to create dot plots and ask statistical questions. 🤩😻
08/29/2024
We're seeking (incoming) 6th grade playtesters for our new math storylines. They'll have a 90m 1:1 session via Google Meets (camera on for critical facial expressions!) with one of our team members, where they'll go through a storyline on statistics and discuss the learning. We use this to help make sure kids are getting the right learning out of it! We'll also send a $10 gift card afterwards, to a place of their choice.
Please DM us if you're interested, and we will send you a link to schedule.
Note: Due to curricula differences, this is only available for students based in the U.S.
Our Founder & CEO is speaking at the Serious Play Conference on Monday about how we've expanded our game and authoring tool to new domains, featuring our new math work. We'll explore the design differences and similarities in a new area, and how that can be seamlessly integrated into the existing gameplay. Make sure to attend if you'll be at the conference!
We’re thrilled to share that our new math work with Tyto Online is one of 50 winning projects of the 2023-24 ! Winners were awarded $8+ million and will reach over 24 million learners worldwide to transform education for learners of all ages. Watch our introduction video about how this critical work empowers students to learn math by using meaningful, problem-based learning in an engaging, 3D video game.
Learn more: https://tools-competition.org/2023-24-winners-press-release/
We're excited to announce we've been awarded a U.S. Department of Education Phase I SBIR grant for adding Middle School Probability & Statistics to Tyto Online. We've partnered with WestEd for feedback and evaluation on this project.
While all math scores have declined since the pandemic, data analysis/statistics dropped the most significantly. The most recent scores for this content area are not only at a historic low, they are the lowest amongst all the math content areas. As students’ performance in data analysis, statistics, and probability has declined, the need for those prepared to tackle the increasingly complex world of data has exploded. Students are not being adequately prepared for today’s reality and certainly not the future we can see rapidly approaching.
We've been digging in and have concepts laid out, subject matter expert feedback in, and are thrilled to begin work with students on this soon! Attached is our application concept video.
05/07/2024
Happy Asian & Pacific American Heritage Month! The Mai Art Museum in the Marketplace has a brand-new exhibit honoring 19 American scientists, engineers, and inventors with Asian and/or Pacific Islander heritage.
02/14/2024
We have some new construction items for players' custom rooms coming out soon! 🔨