Bloom’s Barnyard

DESIGNER’S STATEMENT

This project started with a challenge from Sententia Gamification: create something game-related for their 12 Days of Christmas marketing event that would be genuinely valuable for the instructional design community. An article would have been easy. A design prompt would have been fine. I built an escape room.

The concept came quickly: six geese, six cognitive levels, six golden eggs. Bloom’s Barnyard is a Storyline 360 escape room where players help restore order after a mischievous swan scatters the Six Geese across the barnyard — each guarding one cognitive learning level and one golden egg of game mechanics wisdom. To collect all six eggs and escape before midnight on the 12th day of Christmas, players must demonstrate understanding at each Bloom’s level through activities that model that cognitive level. Not just answer questions about Bloom’s — actually do the thinking each level requires.

The meta-layer is what makes this interesting as an ID portfolio piece: the game teaches Bloom’s Taxonomy by using Bloom’s Taxonomy. The mechanics aren’t decorative — they’re instructional. Every golden egg reveals a game mechanic embedded in the experience itself, so players discover the design principles by playing through them. That’s the kind of recursive instructional design that keeps me up at night in a good way.

This was also a meaningful personal milestone: a submission to the Sententia Gamification community as part of my Master Craftsman Certification path.

Overview Item	Description
Type	Gamified Escape Room — Interactive Learning Experience
Audience	Instructional designers and learning professionals
Context	Sententia Gamification 12 Days of Christmas community challenge
Platform	Articulate Storyline 360 (HTML5)
Tools Used	Articulate Storyline 360, Midjourney, Vidnoz, Suno, Claude AI
Structure	6 levels × 6 Bloom’s cognitive levels × 6 golden egg game mechanics
Deliverables	Storyline 360 escape room, published HTML5
Status	Complete
Role	Instructional Designer, eLearning Developer, Game Designer, Content Creator
Affiliation	Sententia Gamification Master Craftsman Certification path

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Challenge

The Sententia challenge asked for something valuable to the ID community — not just entertaining, but genuinely useful. The instructional design community doesn’t need more articles explaining what Bloom’s Taxonomy is. What’s harder to find is an experience that demonstrates how to design for different cognitive levels, shows what each level actually looks and feels like as a learner, and embeds game mechanics principles in a way that’s discoverable rather than explained.

The design challenge was significant: build six distinct activities that each authentically operate at their assigned Bloom’s level, connect them through a coherent narrative, integrate meaningful game mechanics (not just decoration), and make the whole thing completable in a single sitting for a busy ID professional.

The Solution

A narrative-driven escape room set in Bloom’s Barnyard, hosted by a Partridge in a Pear Tree who explains the chaos from above. The Six Geese were laying golden eggs of game mechanics wisdom when a mischievous swan scattered them across the barnyard. Each goose now guards one cognitive level and one golden egg. Players must visit all six geese, complete the level-appropriate activity, collect the egg, and escape before the clock strikes midnight on the 12th day of Christmas.

Each of the six levels was designed so the activity performs its Bloom’s level rather than just labeling it:

Level 1 – Remember

Players identify and recall the six cognitive levels and their key action verbs. The goose introduces the framework; players demonstrate they can recognize it.

Level 2 – Understand

Players classify action verbs into their correct cognitive levels — demonstrating comprehension by correctly interpreting the distinctions between them.

Level 3 – Apply

Players apply their knowledge of Bloom’s by selecting appropriate objectives for given learning scenarios — using the framework in a new context.

Level 4 – Analyze

Players examine a set of learning objectives and identify which cognitive level each represents — breaking down the components to determine their classification.

Level 5 – Evaluate

Players assess a course design scenario, judging whether the assessments are appropriately aligned to the stated learning objectives.

Level 6 – Create

Players construct a learning objective from provided components — assembling something original that demonstrates mastery of the full framework.

Impact / Outcomes

• Submitted to Sententia Gamification 12 Days of Christmas community challenge
• Demonstrates full-cycle gamification design: narrative, mechanics, progression, feedback, and reward
• Each level authentically models its assigned Bloom’s cognitive level — the experience is the instruction
• Game mechanics revealed through gameplay, not through exposition — players discover the design principles by experiencing them
• Advances Sententia Master Craftsman Certification path

SIX GEESE – SIX LEVELS

Goose 1 – Remember

The Identifier Recall the six cognitive levels and their landmark verbs. The barnyard begins here — you can’t navigate what you can’t name.

Goose 2 – Understand

The Classifier Sort action verbs into their correct cognitive levels. Understanding isn’t knowing the list — it’s knowing the distinctions.

Goose 3 – Apply

The Practitioner Select appropriate learning objectives for given scenarios. Apply the framework where it matters: in real instructional decisions.

Goose 4 – Analyze

The Examiner Break down a set of objectives and identify the cognitive level of each. Analysis requires seeing the parts and the structure underneath.

Goose 5 – Evaluate

The Critic Assess whether assessments are aligned to their stated objectives. Evaluation means making judgments against criteria — exactly what good IDs do.

Goose 6 – Create

The Builder Construct an original learning objective from provided components. Creation is the synthesis of everything that came before — and the egg you’ve earned for mastering it.

THE SIX GOLDEN EGGS – GAME MECHANICS REVEALED

Egg 1: Discovery & Exploration

The act of navigating the barnyard to find each goose IS the mechanic.

Egg 2: Tutorial & Hints

Each goose’s introductory explanation IS the tutorial mechanic.

Egg 3: Progress Tracking

The egg collection display IS the progress mechanic.

Egg 4: Performance Feedback

The immediate correct/incorrect response on each activity IS the performance feedback mechanic.

Egg 5: Epic Meaning & Mission

The narrative frame (restore order before midnight!) IS the epic meaning mechanic.

Egg 6: Trophy & Reward

The final egg collection and escape IS the trophy mechanic.

The reveal is the point: players finish the game having experienced six game mechanics in action, with each one named and explained retrospectively. The design teaches itself.

DESIGN DECISIONS

Decision 1: Activity Design That Performs Its Bloom’s Level

The easiest version of this project would have been six quiz slides with questions about Bloom’s Taxonomy. The harder version — and the right version — was designing six activities where the cognitive demand of the task matches the Bloom’s level it represents. A Level 2 activity doesn’t ask “What is the Understand level?” — it asks players to classify, which is itself an Understand-level task. This alignment between content and cognitive demand is the instructional design principle the game is trying to teach, so it had to model it correctly.

Decision 2: Game Mechanics as Revealed Content, Not Background Features

Most gamified learning uses mechanics as motivational scaffolding — points, badges, progress bars that exist to keep learners moving. Bloom’s Barnyard flips this: the mechanics are the content. The six golden eggs don’t just reward completion — they reveal and name the mechanic the player just experienced. This transforms game design from decoration into instruction, which is exactly the kind of thinking the Sententia community values and the ID community needs to see.

Decision 3: Narrative Coherence Over Convenience

The barnyard setting, the Six Geese a-Laying source material, the mischievous swan, the midnight deadline — none of this is arbitrary. Every narrative element serves the game structure. Six geese map to six Bloom’s levels. The chaos of the scattered geese maps to the ID community’s real confusion about cognitive levels. The escape deadline creates urgency. The Partridge in a Pear Tree as narrator gives a stable, external voice that frames the challenge without breaking the fourth wall. Coherent narrative isn’t cosmetic — it carries the learner through the experience and makes the content memorable.

Decision 4: AI Collaboration as a Design Tool, Not a Shortcut

This project was developed in active collaboration with Claude (Anthropic AI) throughout: narrative development, activity design, feedback scripting, Storyline troubleshooting, and iteration on game mechanics. This wasn’t AI generating content while a human clicks approve — it was a genuine design dialogue where each iteration made the experience stronger. The collaboration is credited openly in the project because it’s part of what the project demonstrates: that thoughtful human-AI partnership can accelerate instructional design without sacrificing pedagogical quality or creative vision.

Decision 4: Designed for the ID Community Specifically

The audience isn’t learners who need to learn Bloom’s for the first time — it’s instructional designers who know the taxonomy but may not have deeply internalized it or experienced it from the learner’s perspective. The difficulty level, the game mechanics reveal, and the meta-commentary embedded in the experience are all calibrated for a professional audience that will appreciate the recursive design layer. This is a project that rewards close attention from people who know what they’re looking at.

WHAT WAS BUILT

Full Deliverables Package

Articulate Storyline 360 Escape Room Six-level escape room with branching navigation, six distinct interaction types each mapped to a Bloom's cognitive level, trophy/egg collection mechanic, progress tracking, and a narrative frame built across the full experience. Published as HTML5 for portfolio and community access.

Midjourney Visual Identity Custom AI-generated illustrations creating the barnyard environment and character visuals — the Six Geese, the mischievous swan, the Partridge narrator, and the barnyard setting. Consistent visual style throughout.

Vidnoz Character Videos Animated character video introductions for the narrator and goose characters, adding narrative depth and personality to each level transition.

Suno Audio Original audio elements created with Suno AI to support the festive, playful tone of the 12 Days of Christmas framing.

Six Activity Designs Original instructional activity design for each Bloom's level — each designed so the cognitive demand of the task authentically models the level it represents. Includes feedback scripting for correct and incorrect responses at each level.

Golden Egg Reveals Six mechanic reveal scripts — each golden egg contains a brief, accessible explanation of the game mechanic the player just experienced, naming it and connecting it back to instructional design practice.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Overview Item	Description
Authoring Tool	Articulate Storyline 360
Visual Assets	Midjourney AI-generated illustrations
Video	Vidnoz AI character video
Audio	Suno AI-generated audio
AI Collaboration	Claude (Anthropic) — narrative, activity design, feedback scripting
Interaction Types	6 distinct types across 6 Bloom's levels
Game Mechanics	6 mechanics embedded and revealed through gameplay
Output Format	HTML5 — portfolio hosted, community shareable
Bloom's Coverage	All 6 cognitive levels (Remember → Create)
ID Framework	Gamification design, cognitive alignment, narrative design, discovery learning
Context	Sententia Gamification 12 Days of Christmas community challenge
Certification	Contributes to Sententia Master Craftsman Certification path
Status	Complete

EXPLORE THE EXPERIENCE

March 1, 2026