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MIT's Education Arcade is building a massively multiplayer online game to help students learn biology and math, according to a press release from the school. The group received $3 million in funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that will enable it to develop the game in conjunction with the Wisconsin-based software developer Filament Games. "This genre of games is uniquely suited to teaching the nature of science inquiry," Eric Klopfer, the program director, says in a statement, "because they provide collaborative, self-directed learning situations. Players take on the roles of scientists, engineers and mathematicians to explore and explain a robust virtual world." A pilot game is expected by spring.