science

Immune Attack

Immune Attack is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Immune Attack rather than just read about it. In short: Immune Attack is an educational video game created by the Federation of American Scientists and Escape Hatch Entertainment. Early development of the game was done by Brown University, in collaboration with the University of Southern California, under a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Key takeaways

Immune Attack belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Immune Attack to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Immune Attack from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Immune Attack is an educational video game created by the Federation of American Scientists and Escape Hatch Entertainment. Early development of the game was done by Brown University, in collaboration with the University of Southern California, under a grant from the National Science Foundation. The game is designed to teach immunology to high school students, although later versions will cater to college aged students as well. The game was officially released in May 2008, and is freely available for download.

Game summary The protagonist of Immune Attack is a teenaged prodigy in the near-future with a unique immunodeficiency in which the immune system is "present, yet non-functional" - as if all the immune cells have forgotten what to do. The hero decides to take matters into her own hands, and allies herself with a team of scientists to create a nanobot with the abilities to teach cells how to fight bacterial and viral infections. The player assumes the role of a pilot remote-controlling the nanobot Explorer. With the help of advisors, the player must learn about the different cells and environments in the human body in order to determine how to train the immune system. Visual and audio clues in the game provide the information needed to accomplish this goal. Each subsequent level of Immune Attack features a different infection, and a different cell type the player must train. Cells trained on previous levels are available for deployment as well, allowing the user to make use of a wide range of agents to accomplish their mission. Immune Attack was evaluated in 5th grade though 12th grade classrooms across the US from 2009 through 2013. A research paper was published in 2014 by Dr. Melanie Stegman, the Director of the Learning Technologies Program at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). In 2014, Stegman was asked by FAS to take the Learning Technologies Program away from FAS, as FAS was interested in focusing on nuclear non proliferation and secrecy. Stegman started a company called Molecular Jig Games and is working on making commercial quality video games that continue to teach serious molecular cell biology. Melanie Stegman's research demonstrates that learning games can teach the terms and abstract concepts of molecular cell biology.

In the news Hoppock, Julia (2008-06-13). "Are Video Games the New Textbooks?". ABC News. Retrieved 2008-07-02. Timothy, Lord (2008-06-29). "A Video Game To Teach AP Level Immunology". Slashdot.org. Retrieved 2008-07-02.

References

External links Official Immune Attack Website Escape Hatch Entertainment website Link to the research paper on Immune Attack (2014) Immune Attack and Dr. Stegman's follow up game, Immune Defense are available on Itch.io

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Immune Attack

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Immune Attack claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Immune Attack before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Immune Attack ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Immune Attack

In research: Immune Attack appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Immune Attack in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Immune Attack is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Medical video games, Science educational video games, Video games developed in the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Immune Attack outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Immune Attack in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Immune Attack means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Immune Attack out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Immune Attack in simple terms?

Why does Immune Attack matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Immune Attack?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Immune Attack.