Harry Potter and the Magic Crystals - Gamification scenario

By Antoine Isaac, French Team.

Based on ideas shared by Teodora Karapvlova, Bulgarian team, Ljupka Petkova, Macedonian team and Antoine Isaac, French Team.

Despite being more than 20 years old, the Harry Potter universe still inspires many young learners. The saga is already a classic, but it doesn't feel outdated. It has the ability to attract a new audience and at the same time keep earlier readers coming back.

That means the Harry Potter universe is a gold mine for teachers. It is instantly recognisable by students, most of them having a quite thorough knowledge of the story and characters.

This gamification scenario is a spin-off of the main, official story arc. It is divided into several chapters.

Chapter 1

The 60 Magic Crystals have been stolen by Lord Voldemort’s agents in Hogwarts.

The crystals control the existence of magic. If Lord Voldemort obtains them, he will be the master of the world!

Quick! We must  catch Voldemort’s agents and get the crystals back before it’s too late…

Our adventure begins in Hogwarts…

With this introduction, the students are asked to regroup in teams, each team representing one of the characters from the book.

Each positive action is rewarded by a power crystal. Power crystals are stored in small glass jars. Each jar is graduated - 1 to 4, because I have groups of 4 students at the most.

When the power crystals reach the  graduation corresponding to the number of students in the group, they can act.

They can defeat an enemy on the map and get a magic crystal back.

An enemy on the map

Small green diamonds represent power crystals

Large coloured diamonds represent magic crystals

After Chapter 2, children can recruit an ally. They receive no crystal this time but they will get 2 crystals for each defeated enemy in the future.

Chapter 2

Good news! Hogwarts is now liberated.

The heroes have recovered some magic crystals, but many are still missing…

We must now go all around the United Kingdom to fight more monsters, retrieve more crystals… and recruit new allies in your team!

Each new recruit will help you defeat 2 monsters at once, which means you can get 2 magic crystals!

 

When a map is cleared of enemies and allies, a new chapter is unlocked. Each chapter brings new game mechanics - the allies to recruit, Quidditch games, bonus cards in exchange for magic crystals, ...

This scenario already works very well with students, even though it's still a work in progress. Pupils like receiving diamonds, which are beautiful, likeable objects, and they also like to be rewarded instantly for their efforts. But of course it doesn't stop there, the notion of stockpiling crystals for future actions is very appealing to children, they seem to like the anticipation of their rewards.