Educational Game Mechanic

[Aesahaettr]

One thing that has struck me about video games is the ease with which kids pick up the game's mechanic. Your average gamer deals with some pretty sophisticated mental processing, especially statistical math.

I wonder, might there be a good way to design a game, the mechanic of which reflects real-world concepts? I'm not talking about "answer math/science questions to get points, yay," but rather something more subtle (and not-lame). Something where in a student who learns is not rewarded by winning the game, but rather is rewarded by playing the game. Game play then reinforces the learned concepts.

I'm not sure how such a mechanic might work, as of yet. Just something to mull over.