Funding:

Science Pirates was funded through USDA's National Research Initiative food safety program. Based on the success of the "Food Detectives Fight BAC!" game, developers wanted to help learners understand the science behind food safety recommendations, such as washing their hands. Through a three year development process, game developers and science educators identified specific science skills, knowledge and processes that would help youth better appreciate food safety recommendations. The resulting product was "Science Pirates", a game that excels in teaching science processes, models inquiry-based learning in games, and ends with a culminating activity that applies learned science processes and experiment design to a common problem in food safety - adequate hand washing.