A new startup company co-founded by former Google employees, named Osmo, is building an augmented reality game to educate kids on running a simple business. Pizza Co. is the name of their latest game, and the company has previously developed similar games to teach programming, drawing, and math before it. The company website is here
The game makes the kids build different types of pizza from cardboard cutout pieces and handle payment and change. The Osmo camera on the iPad on which the game runs then picks up the shapes and gives animated feedback to the kids, teaching them math and shape recognition skills.
I think this is a smart idea, to educate kids about money and transactions in early ages. If they learn the necessary skills early on, they might grow into more responsible adults and have the simple understanding of how money and transactions work in business. It is an essential skill later on in life, and making it into a game which uses physical objects is as close as it can get to the real learning experience at young ages.
