Deep Worlds is a challenge edition version of the Alien Adventure game. It employs the same great game play and rules, but with all-new graphics and science questions that are just as easy to understand … but a bit more challenging to answer correctly!
Games are a fun way to learn, at home or in the classroom. Unlike most science games, Cogno educational board games teach critical thinking and concepts, not just trivia.
Cogno Deep Worlds seamlessly integrates great game strategy with more learning about astronomy, forces & motion and life sciences (including many exciting astrobiology concepts) … in a fun, refreshingly non-trivial way! Up to six individuals can play or many more in teams.
Questions, answers … plus easy-to-understand explanations!
Part of the game involves thought-provoking multiple choice and True/False questions—designed for ages 7-13.
For the curious, the game includes a "Book of Y" that explains every answer. All educational content was expert-reviewed by scientists at NASA and the SETI Institute.
Sample Game Questions and Explanations
(correct answer is bold)True or False: We have photographs of many other galaxies, but no snapshots that show our whole galaxy.
Book of Y explanation: Our telescopes can see many distant galaxies, so we are able photograph them. In order to take a regular photograph of our own galaxy, our camera would need to leave the galaxy, look back, and take the picture. We have never been beyond our solar system, and even our unmanned ships are far from reaching outside our galaxy.
How long would it take an alien friend who lives ten light years away to tell you a ‘knock-knock' joke by radio? a) 15 seconds; b) 15 minutes; c) 50 years; or d) He couldn't tell the joke because there is no laughing allowed beyond Earth.
Book of Y explanation: Telling the joke would take approximately 50 years, because it will take ten years for every message to travel between you and your friend. Remember, radio waves travel at the speed of light, and your friend is 10 light years away. Therefore, every message sent will take ten years to cover the distance between you and your friend. It might go something like this:
Your friend: "Knock-knock." …ten years pass
You: "Who's there?" …ten more years pass
Your friend: "Extra." …ten more years pass
You: "Extra who?" …ten more years pass
Your friend: "Extra-terrestrial!" …ten more years pass,
then you finally hear your friend's punch-line.
No-Wrong-Answer Question: If you met an alien that knew everything about the Universe, and you could ask only one question, what would you ask?
Book of Y explanation: No-Wrong-Answer Question…What do you think?
True or False: Imagine that all gravity in the Universe was magically turned off (except the gravity of Earth), and everything stopped moving. Earths' gravity will now begin to pull everything in the Universe slowly toward it.
Book of Y explanation: While the force of a planet's gravity decreases the farther away you go from the planet, in theory it never goes away–no matter how far you go! If there were only one source of gravity in the Universe, and no object was moving compared to the other objects, the source of gravity would draw everything else slowly toward it.
Question #106: (Challenge) True or False … Since an electric lamp absorbs electricity and converts some of that energy into light, the lamp is actually considered a form of life.
Book of Y explanation: Using or converting energy is not enough to qualify something as being alive. Other things scientists look for are growth and the ability to make more of itself. Electric lamps do not grow or reproduce themselves. They are not considered a form of life.