Using simulation games for teaching and learning discrete-event simulation

Capturing and retaining the attention of students while learning complex topics like modeling and simulation is a critical task. In discrete-event simulation (DES), educators rely on examples like queueing systems in fast food restaurants or manufacturing organizations to provide the necessary context for learning. In many instances, these examples fall short in capturing the attention of students, especially at the middle and high school levels. One approach for learning complex topics, like creating simulations, is through gaming. This paper reports on the creative use of regular simulation tools to develop simulation games with entertainment content aimed towards engaging young learners. Two games are presented: one focuses on the use of decision nodes while the second focuses on the use of batch/separator nodes. As part of future work, we propose to use these games to evaluate how much knowledge transfers from an entertainment context to one using simulations for real-life situations.