Publication Date
Fall 2024
Degree Type
Master's Project
Degree Name
Master of Science in Computer Science (MSCS)
Department
Computer Science
First Advisor
Nada Attar
Second Advisor
Kevin M. Smith
Third Advisor
Christopher Pollett
Keywords
game, education, children, entertainment
Abstract
Children have a tendency to lose focus when they are presented with something that does not entertain them or tailor to their personal interests; such as studying [1], [3], [10]. The research performed for this project focuses on studying how much more children can comprehend and focus on learning educational material if they are learning through playing a video game rather than being taught information directly in a typical classroom manner. For this study I created a computer game designed to introduce educational subjects such as mathematics and programming concepts to the child playing the game. By completing the tasks in this game, children can educate themselves subliminally while simultaneously enjoying themselves. Since children display much higher levels of concentration when they are being entertained compared to when they are studying school subjects [1], combining these two concepts will help children
realize that learning new things can also be as much of an enjoyable experience as playing non- educational games. This will in turn motivate children to want to educate themselves more
regardless of the medium being used. Among all of the child participants who volunteered to play the game I created, 94% of the children stated that they understood the intended lesson that the game’s tasks were each designed to teach them when asked, while also finding the game to be quite entertaining. Each child also displayed a confidence level of 95% when answering each of the tasks they asked to complete. This study offers detailed insight on the levels of confidence the children had when completing the tasks presented in the game, the level of comprehension they had when inputting responses depending on their ages and genders, and whether or not they would have fully understood these concepts had they first learned them verbally instead.
Recommended Citation
Musleh, Kayla, "Teaching Children Programming Concepts Through Video Games" (2024). Master's Projects. 1457.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.599z-tbpd
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_projects/1457
