About Us

Theme Park Kitchen was created by the Learning Games Lab at New Mexico State University with expansion funding from the Extension Foundation USDA-NIFA New Technology for Ag Extension (NTAE) program. The game uses learning content and from a previous Learning Games Lab game Ninja Kitchen, which our team created in collaboration with Rutgers University food safety researcher Carol Byrd-Bredbenner. When the Flash technology used to create Ninja Kitchen became obsolete in 2020, we sought funding to redesign the game with a new theme. 

Special thanks to the NTAE team, who encouraged and supported this work every step of the way.

Learning content

The game has three main learning outcomes for players: 1) Wash hands before preparing food, 2) Avoid cross-contamination from raw meat and dirty produce to cooked or ready-to-eat foods, and 3) Cook foods at the proper temperature. Throughout the majority of the game, players can “see” contamination on hands and surfaces: dirt from hands is brown, contamination from produce is green, and possible bacteria from meat is red. In the final levels, the players can no longer see this contamination and must work from memory to keep customers safe. In this final level of the game, the player has an opportunity to test themselves, having practiced and internalized the proper behavior without seeing contamination