fab24hr in the classroom

For teachers, trainers and camp leaders

fab24hr is a small browser game: you are one person in a chip fab, working one shift. No install, no sign-in, it runs on phones, and a shift takes about 5 to 15 minutes. Students don't need to know anything about semiconductors first: every piece of jargon in the game can be tapped for a plain explanation. This page is for anyone who wants to use it in class.

Who it's for

Middle and high school career, technology and civics classes: what people in the chip industry actually do.
College and vocational semiconductor courses: a warm-up, or an introduction before a fab placement.
New-hire training and camps: one shift to get a feel for shift work, handovers and working across departments.

The 20-minute version

3 minutes: one sentence from you ("a chip fab never stops, and when one tool goes down a whole row of people feel it"), then a look at Who works in a chip fab.
12 minutes: everyone plays one shift on their own phone. The shift follows the device's clock (a morning class gets the morning shift); the opening card lets them switch roles.
5 minutes: pick one of the discussion questions below.

The 40-minute version

5 minutes: groups of three; on the opening card each member picks a different role: process, manufacturing, equipment.
15 minutes: everyone plays the same shift.
10 minutes: compare within the group: at the same moment (say, when the tool goes down), what did each role see, and what were they worried about?
10 minutes: class discussion, then the link to real jobs: Who works in a chip fab and A day in the life of a fab engineer.

Discussion questions (no right answers)

A tool breaks in the middle of the night. Who should be woken up? What does waking someone cost, and what does not waking them cost?
What's the difference between "when will it be up?" and "when will you know?" Have you ever been asked something like that?
Which choice in the game was hardest? What did you pick, and who paid for it?
Anything not on the handover sheet never happened, as far as the next person knows. Where are the handovers in your own life?
Of the three roles, which would you most want to do, and which least? Why?

The game itself has no multiple-choice questions and no score; the titles on the ending card only record the choices you made.

What's real and what's fictional

The fab, the tools, the lots, the people and the numbers are fictional. They don't represent any company's actual procedures and aren't operator training. What's real is the shape of the work: on-call, handovers, Q-time, qual runs, handling problems per the OCAP, incident reports. The content is drawn from public accounts and sources, listed on the About page.

Devices and privacy

Phones, tablets and computers all work; a regular browser is smoothest, and it also opens inside Facebook's or LINE's built-in browser.
There's sound, but the game can be finished with it off.
No accounts, no names collected. The game counts anonymously, in the background, how many browsers are playing (a random id); a name typed in stays on that device.
Free, no ads.