PEDAGOGICAL GAMES Erin Shaw & Jihie Kim Rajeev Talwani, Mitsuyo Clark Mihir Sheth, Zach Boehm, Hao Xu Rejah Anoobacker, Isai Murugeson,Chao Wang, Rohit,

PEDAGOGICALPEDAGOGICALGAMESGAMES

Erin Shaw & Jihie Kim

Rajeev Talwani, Mitsuyo Clark

Mihir Sheth, Zach Boehm, Hao Xu Rejah Anoobacker, Isai Murugeson,Chao Wang,

Rohit,

and Jeannie Novak

University of Southern California, Information

Sciences Institute LEMA High School, LAUSD

http://ai.isi.edu/pedtek/pedgames

Pedagogical Technologies Project

Teaching Secondary Mathematics Teaching Secondary Mathematics Through Collaborative Computer-Through Collaborative Computer-

Game MakingGame Making

NSF Pedagogical Games, University of Southern California @ Cyberlearning Tools for STEM Education Conference, March, 2011

Pedagogical Games

Project thesis

Instruction grounded in a culturally- and career-

relevant context can improve retention and STEM

achievement.

Project goal

Develop and evaluate a computer game-making

curriculum to address retention, career education

and secondary mathematics learning.

Project funding

2008-2009: USC Seed funding for feasibility and pilot

2010-2013: NSF Creative IT ($650K, 9/2010-8/2013)


Stakeholders

Project partners

LEMA High (Pilot*) School,

Los Angeles Unified SD

Project teachers

Math teacher (math tutorial)

Film teacher (video games)

Teacher participation

Teach classes, Review materials, Create

new materials, Planning by email (before

almost every class), and after classes.

*Pilot schools are in‐district LAUSD schools that have autonomy over their budget, curriculum and assessment, governance, schedule and staffing in exchange for increased accountability. (LAUSD)

*Pilot schools are in‐district LAUSD schools that have autonomy over their budget, curriculum and assessment, governance, schedule and staffing in exchange for increased accountability. (LAUSD)

LEMA


Project Timeline

Pilot I (February-March, 2011)

• Five weeks, focus on game creation & mathematics integration

• Evaluate context-based pre-algebra learning

Pilot II (March-April 2011)

• Five-weeks, focus on team projects & online collaboration

• Evaluate online activities by modeling task and topics that

students write about on Moodle

Full implementation (Fall 2011, 2012)

• Fall semester (four months), Implementation at second site


Observations (Student sample)

Students and investigators post observations

1. Running the tutorials individually actually

worked by this class, as some students

went ahead of the class and finished the

advanced tutorials with timers, enemies and bonus points with multiple levels.

2. The students who made the good games

wanted to present it in front of the class and this was interesting to watch as

some of the other students got interested in it.

3. Asking the students to work together on the worksheet and the paper did not

seem to work.

4. The students were not interested in doing the ID1 gameMaker scene to answer

the worksheet questions. It seemed more efficient to show the scene on the

projector and explain the worksheet question. Also, deriving the answer from

the scene , than verifying the answer from the scene might be more engaging.

USC students Isai and Rejah


Observations (Another student sample)

….when the students arrived at Mr. T's classroom, we had an

unexpected experience of the system there. Every student was

doing everything, except listening to the teacher. Some were

fighting, some were texting, some had their own chit-chats,

which they somehow knew was more important to what Mr. T

had to offer them.


Assessments

Survey

Game interest and technological background

Math motivation profile

Pre-post math testing

Pre-post testing on rate, fractions, percents (given twice)

Two control groups (advanced classes)

Post tests

Give to game students last Friday

No control tests given yet


Survey Results (Sample)

Plans for college (17):

No=4, Yes=12

Like math (19):

No=9, Yes=6

Good at math (19):

No=6, Yes=6

Anxious about math

(19):

No=11, Yes=4

Will do well (math) (19):

No=7, Yes=4

Will do well (games)

(19):

No=3, Yes=8


Assessment Results (Math)(Period 2, 4 are control, Period 6 is experimental)

N 15 18 18 18 18

1 8 6 7 7 14 taught (in intervention)

2 3 10 5 5 3 taught

3 0 2 0 0 0 taught

4 4 3 3 3 3 reviewed

5 2 2 6 6 7 not taught

6 0 0 0 0 1 taught

7 0 0 0 0 0 taught

8 0 0 0 0 0 taught

2nd 4th 6th = 6th 6th

ctrl ctrl exp exppre pre pre post

Q# #Students answering correctly*** Comment

***Studentsattemptedonly easy questions;

Most questions were left

blank.

Period(exp/ctrl(pre/post)


Assessment Results (Math)

Little (if any) improvement shown

Time on math task was issue for pilot• Mostly because of student resistance

• Also, due to ramp up time needed for game-making

Motivation to take test a problem• No credit/grade given

• Some incentives to attempt problems for both

pre/post, but students gamed by guessing

Teaching Arsenal

• GameMaker

• Video Tutorials

• Math Worksheets

• Adjunct games for math

worksheets

• Embedded math games

• Create-your-own

“Math Blaster” games* Jihie sorting laptops

Project Management

Moodle used for

• Extended team

collaboration

• Classes and

student groups

Video Tutorials

Translation of GM

Tutorial

• Former study showed

target population lost

interest in long text

narratives

• Narrated by

undergrad games

students

• Conversation-based

Translation of GM

Tutorial

• Former study showed

target population lost

interest in long text

narratives

• Narrated by

undergrad games

students

• Conversation-based

Reference video

tutorials

• Taught by math

teacher, then given

to students

• Perceived relevance

of concepts varied

E.g. speed, fraction,

graphing, median

• Associated games

created, but students

ignored math if

laptops were open

Reference video

tutorials

• Taught by math

teacher, then given

to students

• Perceived relevance

of concepts varied

E.g. speed, fraction,

graphing, median

• Associated games

created, but students

ignored math if

laptops were open

Math Worksheets

Math Worksheets

Worksheet example


Games Quiz

Very successful

• Played in front of class

• Students who

answered correctly got

to drive

• Presented as

debugging session (it

was)

• Students suggested

better hints

• Model for future

educational game-

making

Very successful

• Played in front of class

• Students who

answered correctly got

to drive

• Presented as

debugging session (it

was)

• Students suggested

better hints

• Model for future

educational game-

making

Observations

Worked

• Game making:

students love their

games!

• Video tutorials

• Teacher led game

with math focus

• Presentations followed

by worksheets

• “Catch-up” sessions

Did not work

• Math testing

• Combining individual

computer games or

instruction w/

worksheets or slides

=> teach sequentially

=> assess math as part of

game creation =>ECD)

Game Creation = Quantitative Reasoning

Pilot I Video Games

Rates appear in various contexts: Player movement, Animation speed

Variables are used to store values for display

Rates appear in various contexts: Player movement, Animation speed

Variables are used to store values for display

Events have order, conditions, multiple steps

Scripts can be introduced for “special” purposes

Events have order, conditions, multiple steps

Scripts can be introduced for “special” purposes

Problem Cataloging

• What are students

learning?

• Catalogue problems

that result from

game design wrt CA

MCS, Skills, and

MDTP (test)

• Collect database of

problems


Five Year Plan

• Push program down to feeder

middle school

• Leverage for introductory

computer programming curriculum

(2B proposed)


To Be Continued….

Thank you for listening!

Are there any questions?

For more information:[email protected], [email protected], http://ai.isi.edu/pedtek

Documents

PEDAGOGICAL GAMES Erin Shaw & Jihie Kim Rajeev Talwani, Mitsuyo Clark Mihir Sheth, Zach Boehm, Hao Xu Rejah Anoobacker, Isai Murugeson,Chao Wang, Rohit,