Storm Evader

Storm Evader is a flight traffic-controller simulation app. With this app, users are to guide airplanes’ flight paths around weather systems displayed on a map of the United States so the airplanes can successfully depart from one airport and land at another airport. Users are given a 24-hour window to land as many airplanes as possible (Storm Evader equates one second to 15 minutes on the 24-hour clock), and the simulation awards users profits based on the amount of airplanes they successfully guide from airport to airport without encountering any storms. The more storms an airplane flies through, the lower the profit. (Profits can be completely lost, resulting in either money being owed or the airplane being lost if it flies through too many storms.) In the simulation, users can choose a “Free Play” or “Career Mode” option. In Free Play, users are given a set time to land as many planes as possible. In the Career Mode, users are given a set of time and specific profit levels to earn at each stage, and they must meet those profit expectations within in the time frame before advancing to the next level.

Instructional Ideas

1. When studying weather patterns, teachers can have students use this simulation to help them understand the impact of weather systems on air travel. Teachers can then ask students to provide an explanation, either in writing or verbally, to explain how weather can impact travel times. In Math, teachers can ask students to represent this data using a graph.
2. When studying weather patterns, teachers can have students use this simulation to learn how severe weather travels across the United States. After viewing multiple simulations, teachers can ask students to explain common patterns of how weather travels across the United States in writing.
3. To build students’ strategic-thinking skills, teachers can have students complete at least five levels in the Career Mode feature of this app. Next, teachers can have students compose an explanation about their strategy for navigating airplanes around severe weather systems to earn profits.

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