Developing
a 2D Word Game to Enhance Early Graders' Cognitive Skills while Learning Music,
Arts, Physical Education, and Health (MAPEH)
An
IT Capstone Project Presented to the Faculty of the
Information
Technology Education Program
University
of the Immaculate Conception
Fr.
Selga St., Davao City
_________________
In
Partial Fulfillment of the
Academic
Requirements for the Degree of
BACHELOR
OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
MAJOR
IN MULTIMEDIA
(BSIT-MM)
FERNANDO,
RICKY JAY D.
JARMIN,
LAURA P.
LAYNO,
STANLEY E.
DATE:
Background of the Study
Nowadays, the parents, teachers, parents and students will
face a new challenge this school year because of the implementation of the K-12
program. The government is trying to attain the needs of the student with the
new scheme of education. The K-12 entails the addition of Music, Arts, Physical
Education and Health (MAPEH) subject in grades 1, 2 and 3.
Music is a colorful sound that we hear after birth. Playing music for infants in their first year provides for
enhancement and benefit in future education. Music has different meaning to
every individual. It works as a means of learning, relaxation, and fun.
Everyday, young people spend more than four hours watching
television, one hour using a computer and one hour of playing video games. No
wonder why this era has become the “digital age”. We can also refer to the
current era as a visual age. The demand for new abilities also transformed the
workplace. “The secret sauce comes from our ability to integrate are, music and
literature with the hard sciences, that’s what produces an iPod Revolution or a
Google.” Friedman says. Today arts are needed by our young people as a means of
expression, communication, exploration, and imagination. Arts help us
strengthen the critical thinking skills. It also develops cognitive and
creative skills. Physical Education plays a critical role in educating the
whole student. Like other academic courses of study, physical education is
based upon rigorous national standards that define what students should know
and be able to do as a result of participation. It is unique to the school
curriculum as it is the only program that provides students with opportunities
to learn motor skills, develop fitness, and gain understanding about the
importance of physical activity. Students will be provided an individualized,
developmentally appropriate, and personally challenging instructional program
that will advance the knowledge, confidence, skills, and motivation needed to
engage in a lifelong, healthy, active lifestyle.
In the propose study of the proponents, the students are
going to apply and use the application not just for the entertainment but for
them to learn on something like any other word games. But with this study the
students are expected to learn words from the subject itself.
Statement of the Problem
This
study find answers to the following questions:
1.
Can the new
game be an effective tool for learning while keeping players entertained?
2.
Can the new
game be an effective way of teaching MAPEH and can it be equally effective for enhancing
the critical thinking skills of the players?
General Objectives
The general objective of this study is to implement a word
game that enables the learning of the MAPEH subject more exciting. By providing
a learning environment that is exciting and entertaining, the hope is to
increase learning effectiveness. This game will act as a future learning tool
that will assist in the problems that teachers face in expanding a child’s vocabulary.
The same can be said for a teacher trying to teach
students where Cebuano is not their first language. This application can make
players more determined to learn and to advance in the language by forming as
many words as they can. It will let the players build and expand their
vocabulary and strengthens the advantages of learning and playing this game.
Specific Objectives
·
To create an
application that is effective in teaching MAPEH subject with fun
·
To create an
application that enhances the players’ critical thinking skills
Conceptual Framework
The concept of the game is that the
player inputs the user name after the submission, the player has two options in
selecting the type of game, whether a timed game or a non-timed game. If the
player selects timed game, the player can select among the four categories;
Music, Arts Physical Education, or Health. If the player selects random
category, there will be two (2) minutes allotted time for the player to search
for possible word/s and if the player find the word/s there will be an
additional ten (10) seconds added to the player’s remaining time. In non-timed
game, there will be a leveling stage of difficulty and the player will
construct for possible answer in every random category questions. There is a rule in giving hint, in non-timed game, there is a
help button for words that were not yet found. The
player can hit the hint button every twenty (20) seconds only to have
discipline in using hint. The timed game scoring is based on the number
of words find while the non-timed game ranking score is based the length of
words found. To make the game more interesting and exciting, the proponents
added a hall of fame list , wherein it has a ranking
of the top 10 players displaying their
statistics like longest word found and their achievements that they gain from
timed and non-timed game. However, if the player
wanted to quit the non-timed game, he can hit the menu button and quit. If the
player losses in timed game, there will be a notification box that will pop-up
in which the player could choose and decide whether to try again or quit the
game and return to main menu.
Figure 1.0 The process of the
Gameplay Simulation
Scope and Delimitation
of the Study
Scope
The study focuses on developing a PC
game application of a book worm style game where it contains many categories
that are related to MAPEH subject such as Music,
Arts, Physical Education and Health.
This game, players can choose
whether it is timed game or non-timed game. Players can play with different
category such as Music, Arts, Physical Education and Health or player can
choose a random category. This game has a time limit wherein the player needs
to complete the word/s before the time ends. If they can answer questions then
points will be given and will be placed in a ranking or players can quit the
game and return to main menu. In timed game, players can choose different
category or a random category. Players will get a score for every word and if
they have the biggest scores they will be put first in a ranking.
Delimitation
The game will
only delimit the following:
o
It will only focus on related MAPEH
subject.
o
It will only cater 2D Graphics and does
not project 3D graphics.
o
It will only use materials that are
educational. All inappropriate topics will be excluded.
Significance
of the Study
Students – This
research is significant to the students that find MAPEH as a difficult subject.
Teachers – This
research is significant to the teachers for they will also learn new learning
tools or other way on how to teach MAPEH subject.
Players
– This
research is significant to anybody that plays games since this game can enhance
the players critical thinking skills of the subject MAPEH .
Future
Researchers – Anybody that wished to create the same
study can use this as a reference. They will find this helpful.
Definition of Terms
2D
computer graphics - 2D computer graphics are digital images that are
computer-based. They include 2Dgeometric models, such as image compositions,
pixel art, digital art, photographs and text. 2D graphics are used every day on
traditional printing and drawing.
Computer Gaming - Computer gaming is a type of video game playing that
is played on a personal computer, rather than a dedicated video game console.
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND
STUDIES
This chapter contains the review of related
literature and related studies that contains relevant and useful information in
conducting the research.
Related Literatures
Study
examines potential positive effects of video games
Video games have become part of our
life. All age groups have a varying degree of experience with video games. Most
games have been made for entertainment purposes. Nowadays, there is increasing
controversy over the effects of video games. Parents worry about the negative
effects of computer gaming on children, they’ve emphasized on the violent behavior
and addiction of computer games. However, there are some positive effects which
could benefit a person from playing video games.
According
to Snodgrass (2011), an associate professor of anthropology at
Colorado State, video games can have potential positive effects on people. This
was researched by examining the different types of video gaming experiences and
the effects they can have on players’ lives, including their self-reported
levels of stress, life satisfaction and happiness. In video games, players could develop
avatars and complete tasks in cooperation with other players. The complex and
highly interactive nature of the game can lead players to feel as though they
have become part of a vividly compelling alternate universe.
The American
Psychological Association (APA) researchers assessed their problem-solving
ability by examining the types of cognitive, goal-oriented, game-oriented,
emotional and contextual statements they made. Younger children seem more
interested in setting short-term goals for their learning in the game compared
to older children who are more interested in simply playing and the actions of
playing.
(Ostrovsky, 2008)
Bookworm Deluxe
Bookworm deluxe has similar concepts to Mother Tongue
Bookworm. The game utilizes 2D graphic visualization, from a grid of available
letters; players connect letters to form words. As words are formed, they are
removed from the grid and the remaining letters collapse to fill the available
space. The players are given a board filled with lettered tiles, and they have
to string them together to form words. The player get points for each word and
longer words are worth more points. A major benefit of the game is that it
increases a player’s vocabulary.
(Mueller,
2005)
Scrabble
Scrabble
has been around for more than half a century now. Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score
points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked
with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. There are three ways in
which the player could benefit from playing this game. One of which is that it
builds vocabulary, second is it helps one improve spelling and lastly in
developing the skill of anagramming. The game application
made by the proponents used this game as inspiration for the board game
concept.
(Rooni,
2010)
Boggle
game
Boggle game or
most commonly known as word factory is a word game designed by Allan Turoff. The game is played using a plastic grid of lettered dice, in which players attempt to find
words in sequences of adjacent letters. The game is intended to help children
learn to recognize letters and words, to practice hand-eye coordination, and to
learn the correct spellings of basic words.
(Nickerson, 2007)
Synthesis
The above
mentioned related literature and studies, the proponents viewed that the
proposed game application would be feasible and would significantly help those
students most specially Kindergarten to Grade 3 students who are under the K to
12 program of the Department of Education. Children nowadays have access to
technology that was not available in previous generations and therefore they
have a unique opportunity to use this technology to aid in how they learn. By
reversing the negative effects of video games, there are benefits that could be
gained by players while having fun at the same time.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the proponents discussed the method used in
this study and the different procedures in the development of the research.
Moreover, it also included the research locale, design procedure, design
instrument and the timeline of the study and how the gathered data collected
and analyzed.
