Storm Evader Summary

The article “Storm Evader: Using an IPad to teach kids about Meteorology and Technology” by Amy McGovern, Andrea Balfour, Marissa Beene, and David Harrison found on the American Meteorology Society website in volume 96, issue 3 published March 2015, is about the advancements of technology in education and specifically in the area of Meteorology. The article begins by discussing the shortage of workers in science, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Also, that it is important that children are engaged more in STEM skills with the end goal of having more STEM majors. The article then shifts to video games, it states that even though video games are viewed as a form of entertainment, they are being used more and more in education of all

The goal of Storm Evaders is to teach players to safely route planes across the United States during severe weather events by using radar images. Players must route planes from their starting airports to the destination airports while avoiding weather hazards, and minimizing fuel usage. The game is rewarded based on how many planes land safely and the amount of fuel the planes have upon arrival. Another goal of Storm Evaders was to demonstrate the computational and artificial intelligence could be used in a real-world situation. This was addressed by embedding information already used by forecasters in the game. So in Storm Evaders, the player has access to the forecasts every 12 hours, so the players can route according to what they determine from the forecast. The two main components of the game are career mode and free play. Career mode takes the player through a series of stories that become more challenging over time. Free play allows the player to choose any day form the list, within the game, in which to play. Free play mode also contains an endless mode where each day is looped back to back with the next day. The next step was to evaluate Storm Evaders and see how children reacted to the