my population of interest for my game is preteens. my interest of population is children at the age 10-13 year. they were recruited randomly. my experimental group : kids that play the game in an informal setting, control group: kids that play the game in the formal setting. my subjects are 10-13 years old. the only criteria that was used is to see if the students is the same age in school records. kids over the age of 13 was excluded. kids with any disability was excluded. the average age of the subjects were 10-13 years. there will be 10 girls and 10 boys in each group. ethnicity didn’t matter and education, they had to be in middle school. they were given coupons for kids meal at restaurants and baseball game tickets. yes they did receive course credit. materials that was used in this experiment are classroom, museum, the game on a device, test, measuring game scores and test scores. my stimuli is having an iPad where kids with partners learn definitions in different environments with freedom to skip levels and without freedom to skip levels to see who can understand a word better with definitions. the stimuli was presented when the students start playing the game and when they are randomly picked to be in each setting. the responses were measured by score on the game and the test they take afterwards. no other equipments are included. the conditions i created was having them in pairs to learn each definitions and comparing what difference can informal and formal setting can do to them and also checking if giving them freedom to learn the definitions can make it much entertaining for them to remember the lesson. subjects in formal setting was set up in pairs and given definitions of words in an iPad with a picture to figure out the right word for each definition in order from level 1 to 10. subjects in informal setting was set up in pairs as well and given definitions of words in an iPad with a picture to figure out the right word for each definition in any order they want and skip levels if they want. i explained it to the subjects by just telling them how some of them will be playing the game in class and some will be taken to go somewhere and play the game and they will do an activity on who learned more on definitions of words. i collected my data after the played the game, i took down the game score and they took a test.

Game Elements

The title of my game is ” How long can you pay attention”?

Learning Elements 

My game is trying to teach college students to pay attention through distractions. The learning experience it’s trying to create for players is even through there are distractions you have to pay attention. The dynamic form of interaction of this game is talking with teammates. This supports the learning objective of the game because as a team you have to pay attention.The cognitive system  is most affected by the game design.

Formal Elements 

This game is a mulitplayer game that allows up to 10 players to play. This is a competitive game. The primary objective of the game is for the team to guess what your teammates are doing, while the other team distracts you. The rules of the game are simple, you have to outscore the other team in points. This does not conflict with the game and the learning objective. There are no resources in this game besides a deck of cards. There is no conflict in this game besides reaching the score limit. The boundaries in this game are on the guide that prevents the players from acting crazy. This limitation does make the game fun.The game ends when the first team reaches the score limit that was set in the beginning. Yes the outcome conflicts with the objectives.

Dramatic Elements

There is no main character in the game, its a team based game. The challenge that is presented to the player is to act out whats on the card. The skill that the player must master is sustained attention. No there is no fictional world. The general premise of the game is to measure a person’s sustained attention through distractions. There is no story in this game. This game is playful because it allows multiple players to play. The tension in this game is that it’s a competitive game that people want to come in first and not second.

System Dynamics

Deck of cards that tell the player what to act out is built to play this game. There are no properties in this game. Acting behaviors is required in this game. There are no relationships between the system elements. The player himself controls the dynamics of this game. No there is not an existing economy. The only new system that emerges from the game play is different types of distractions. No there is not any procedurally generated systems. Everything is exposed to the player from the beginning nothing is hidden. The players can talk to their teammates to receive feedback.

Functionality, Completeness, & Balance

The game is not yet fully functional needs some more improvements. The game is complete. No there is no voice being represented. The game i believe is balanced. No there isn’t a proven strategy as of yet. The game design is symmetrical.

Fun And Accessibility 

The game is fun. The elements support this game by you playing with some of your close friends. The only meaningful choices in this game is to pick who you want on your team. It does not relate to the objective. No there are no parts of this game that is broken. There are some parts that needs some micromanaging. I don’t think that there are parts that are boring in this game. No there are not any inconsequential choices. This game is very easy to play. It doesn’t take somebody long to learn how to play the game. Players learn to play this game by a guide that comes with the game.

Week 6 Milestone: Methods for Affects of Gene Mutation Game

Intro: This game is to help mid adolescence and early adulthood students understand the gene mutation MTHFR and still be able to be healthy. This game is supposed to be simple to understand and to show the effects when you do not keep up with the diets. 

Subjects:

1. Mid adolescence, early adulthood college/high school, all ethnicities with the gene mutation MTHFR
2. Upper high school grades 11-12 (ages 16-18), college students (ages 18-24). Recruited through research pools, flyers posted up in schools. Children from urban areas. Public colleges with gene mutation and without.
3. Control group: without the gene mutation

Experimental group: have the gene mutation

1. People included- with and without gene mutation
2. People excluded- with gene mutation MTHFR and other health issues
3. 19, males and females, all ethnicities, college, and high school

Apparatus

I feel a video game will be more effective for the idea I have. I was thinking to have the baby grow up and for the child to continue going through health issues and problems. Have the child-teenager make bad decisions and see how the player guides the child throughout.   

1. Food is the stimuli, it causes a reaction depending on if you have the gene mutation, as the child gets older, alcohol and drugs can pop up as well to see how that may effect the health of the child
2. Food pieces are created in the game and it will be circling aroung the child and you need to click the right foods to give the baby. The levels will get harder as you continue playing. And drugs and alcohol will be added to the game pieces.
3. There is a health bar and the baby’s face changes depending on what the child eats to keep track of the responses.

Procedures

1. The babies with the sensitivity to gluten’s results and the healthy baby’s results are going to be compared. 
2. the subjects in each condition need to feed the baby the right food. There will be food circling the baby and they have to think fast what foods are good.
3. The directions are floating on top of the screen.
4. Points and health of the baby is recorded throughout each level.

The population of interest is homeless people.The subjects that were sampled from the homeless population are the ones that live in shelters. They were recruited in a shelter, and subjects were asked to fill out a two question survey. They were asked; would they like to participatepate in a study and how long they were homeless for? If they agreed to do this study, they were arranged in groups based on the type of homelessness which best fits them. There are three types of homelessness which are new entry, chronic and episodic.The three types of people that are homeless are being split in half. Both the experimental and control group will have a group of each type of homelessness. The experimental group will be the group that will be playing the game and the control group will be the people that will not be playing the game.I included subject that falls into one of the three types of homelessness category. They also much live in a shelter in order to play this game.I did not include homeless person that live on the street.The average age range would be around 18 years to 30 years old. I  motivated to participate by giving them a stipend.

To develop this game I use my own version of a scavenger hunt. There are three groups of homelessness which are new entry, chronic and episodic. Each group is given the same cards with the same directions on them in the same order. Next, they will all start at the same time. They will be told to read the first card then do exactly what the card ask them to do. When they get to their location they will be given a task to do. This task will develop a skill that can help them to find a job that goes with that particular skill they have learned. As soon as they finish that task they move on to card number two and follow the directions listed on that card. The group that get through all 5 cards and achieve all 5 skills will be rewarded cash and a full course meal.

The stimuli were presented to homeless people that wants to better their life. This game is design so that homeless people can develop skills so that they can find a job that best suits them.Their responses are being measured by six people. Three people will measures each group in the experimental group and the other three people will measure each group in the control group. They will be measuring their skills. They will measure how well they master those skills, which skill best suits them and how long it took to achieve those skills?

Each subjects in each condition asked to take a survey in the beginning so that we get their consent. Then they were asked to play the game to the best way that they can so that they can benefit from it.I explain things to the subjects by gathering all the subjects that will be playing the game together into one room and speak to them about how the game works? I will not tell them the purpose of the game which is for them to be able to develop skills to help them find a job. I want to be able to measure and see if the skills are being developed or not.I will collect data by the level of the subject’s performance. It will be graded from a scale of 1-10. If the subject scores a grade of a one means that the subject preformed that skill very poorly and a grade of a 10 means that the subject mastered that particular skill.

Subject

My population of interest is adolescents. I am interested in teens that are of the ages 15-17. Subjects from Clara Barton high school were sampled from the population. They were recruited at random. A letter was handed out to all of the students at the school. The ones who responded were chosen. There were forty subjects chosen. The experimental group was told to listen to a playlist provided on their phone everyday straight for two weeks. The control group was told not to listen to music everyday for two weeks. I assigned the subjects at random. All forty names were written on a piece of paper and placed in a hat. The girls were chosen first then the boys. Ten girls and ten boys were assigned to each group. Students who passed an emotional stability test were chosen. The test proved that the chosen subjects were emotionally healthy. They had no signs of depression. Subjects who showed signs of depression emotional instability were excluded. The average age of the subjects was 16 years old. The average ethnicity was African American.The subjects were motivated by tickets to a game at the Barclays center. The subjects also received two extra credits added on to their transcript.

Apparatus

I used an mp3 player, headphones, paper and pencil. The experiment group was told to listen to music from Future in a two week time span. The artist future makes rap music. His music promotes substance abuse. The stimulus was presented through an mp3 player. The experimental group was provided with an mp3 player that had 30 songs from future. At the end of the two weeks, the students were given an emotional test. This test would determine if they were depressed or had thoughts of depression.

Procedures

The students were only allowed to listen to one artist everyday for two weeks. They had to listen to the playlist entirely. The subjects were told to listen to or to not listen to the assigned music for the two weeks.The subjects were taken into a room where they sat for 2 hours listening to future. The students were given an emotional test. This test would determine if they were depressed or had thoughts of depression.

METHODS

• Subjects
  A-Population of interest children that are in the grade levels of 1^st

  B- The way the samples were recruited is half the class at random is picked to participate in a game and the other half are not participating in the game. This is to acquire knowledge on the game if the game assists with improving self-confidence and improving participation.

  C- The Conditions that will be involved will be the experimental and control group.
  The control Group – will be the leftover from the randomly assigned experimental group.  This group will not be participating in the game because we want to see if this group differs in a way that self-confidence and participation will occur by self or it will occur by playing a game.
  The experimental Group- this group will be randomly assigned to students who will be participating in a game.
  These groups were assigned at random and the other half will be applicable to the other group.  This is done at random to initiate and prove that nothing was fixed or that this is a hoax.

  D- The only groups that were included are the experimental group and control group.  There are NO known criteria to determine if a subject is eligible for this study.  The reason is because I want this study to be purely at random to prove that this will instill self-confidence or it will be learned by the person at their own experiences they have encountered in their lifetime.

  E- The people are children that will be participating in the game.

  F- The average age of children that participated in this game were 6 years.  They were not paid with currency but paid in rewards to a point where just participating were enough of a reward for them.

• Apparatus
  A- In this experiment A TV screen, video of a good TV program that is educational and animation wise.
  – a child will be asked to perform actions that a character did in the program that was presented to the experimental group.
  B- An interaction that a character did, the child must perform and replicate the action of the character.
  C- An interaction that was presented in the program.
  D- the responses would be “YAY” or “NAY” by the other classmates that were also introduced to the program.
  E- A TV with speakers to make ensure that the classmates introduced to the stimuli can hear the characters in the program.
• A- Classmates that were introduced to the performance of the program and classmates that were not introduced to the program.
  B- The subjects in the experimental that were introduced to the program and the control that were not introduced to the program.
  C- Explaining in the beginning to the experimental group that they will be asked to participate in an interaction of “sharade” of a character that was picked from watching the program.
  D- By measuring the accuracy of how many classmates in the experimental group answered correctly and how many answered incorrectly. To encourage classroom participation is the key here.

Learning has been always a topic that captured people’s interest. Particularly, parents of children felt very concerned about how well their kids could do at school. However, many factors can influence the way a child learns. Following a proper diet could be considered one of these factors that may determine the process of learning in childhood. According to psychologists, learning is defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior, knowledge, capability, or attitude that is acquired through experience and cannot be attributed to illness, injury or maturation (Samuel E. Wood, Ellen Green Wood & Denise Boyd). This definition gives a feedback about how broad, and interesting this concept of learning is. Yet many researchers have felt the necessity to dedicate part of their time conducting researches on the topic of learning, and particularly the effect that diet could have on childhood learning learning. One study showed that unhealthy food habits tracked during childhood period have a tremendous impact on behavior and cognition (Ester F.C. Sleddens, Willemieke Kroeze, Elizabeth Velema, Laura M Bolten, Pam J. Kaspers, Johannes Brug, & Stef PJ Kremers). Another study conducted on determining whether there is a relation between diet quality and mental health in adolescent, one’s found evidences that unhealthy dietary has a relationship with poor mental health in children and adolescent. When the researchers reverse the study which means testing children and adolescent, those have eaten good food, they found an opposite result. They observed that the better the quality of food children eat, the better they will be mentally (Adrienne O’Neil, Shae E. Quirk, Sharon L. Brennan, Lana J. Williams, Julie A. Pasco, Michael Berk, & Felice N. Jacka). On top of this, researchers also found that early life nutrition has produced an effect on children’s neurocognitive development. In fact, they demonstrated through their research that children who were low birth weight babies showed lower IQ and power language and reading skills (Diane Tomlinson, Heather Wilkinson & Heather Wilkinson). Moreover, depending on the dietary intake, children could develop serious diseases that could impair their learning ability. A study revealed that diets high in fat and sugar, and low in fruit, vegetables and fiber could provoke diseases such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, risk for type 2 diabetes, and cancer. The study also demonstrated that in order to promote health and well-being, it is significant for children and adolescents to follow healthy diet (Arianna D McClain, Courtney Chappuis, Selena T Nguyen-Rodriguez, Amy L. Yaroch & Donna Spruijt-Metz). Researchers go even further in their studies, and found that pregnant women’s diet plays a significant role in their children ability to ability to learn, and their behavior. According to the study, during their pregnancy, women should choose carefully what they eat in order for children to development properly (Catherine Lucas, Karen E. Charlton & Heather Yeatman).

As we can see, there are many studies that have been conducted on the relationship that exist between childhood learning and diet. These studies certainly pinpoint the importance of the diet for children, and how it affects their behavior, learning and their physical health. Nevertheless, some works still need to be done in this field. For example, children usually do not feel comfortable when it comes to follow proper diet that can promote learning ability. They are more prone to other kind of food such as fast food, which can negatively impact their well-being. In fact, studies show that diet is good for learning, but they do not reveal what can make children motivate to follow diet. In order to fill out this gap, it is significantly important to conduct studies on what can help children develop a healthy eating habit. It is predicted that diet has a positive effect on children’s ability to learn. In my study, I will focus on how playing game could promote children to develop an attitude that will help them perceiving diet as a pleasurable attitude.

References

Brug, J., Kremers, S. P.J., Kohl, L.F.M., Kroeze, W., Kapers, P.J. (2015).Determinants of dietary behavior among youth: an umbrella review. BioMed Central journal. Doi: 10.1186/s12966-015-0164-x.

Lucas, C., Charlton, K. E., & Yeatman, H. (2014). Nutrition Advice During Pregnancy: Do Women Receive it and Can Health Professionals Provide it? Maternal and Child Health Journal Matern Child Health J, 18(10), 2465-2478.

O’Neil, A., Quirk, S. E., Housden, S., Brennan, S. L., Williams, L. J., Pasco, J. A., . . . Jacka, F. N. (2014). Relationship Between Diet and Mental Health in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review. Am J Public Health American Journal of Public Health, 104(10).

Tomlinson, D., Wilkinson, H., Wilkinson, P. (2009). Diet and Mental Health in Children. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 14(3), 148-155.

Trabulsi, J. C., & Mennella, J. A. (2012). Diet, sensitive periods in flavour learning, and growth. International Review of Psychiatry, 24(3), 219-230.

Wood, S. E., Wood, E. R., & Boyd, D. R. (2004). Mastering the world of psychology. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

Subject

My population of interest are New York State elementary students, a mixture of 4th and 5th graders). My sample is to choose one elementary school from each borough, Manhattan, queens, staten island, bronx and brooklyn. It will be a total of 200 students being tested and 100 students testing the common core fraction game. The experimental group are the students playing the game and testing their achievement. My control group are the 100 students that are not playing the game and testing on how well they do with regular testing strategies. The way I will go about recruiting the students is one elementary school from each borough will be tested. For each school 40 random student will be elected, a mixture of 4th and 5th graders. 20 students will test the game in the school and 20 students will not. The 20 students who do not, will focus on regular teaching strategies used in class for fractions.

Apparatus
The common core mainly focuses on developing critical thinking, problem solving, and analytical skills students will need to be successful. Fractions is a broad topic that is difficult to learn among young children. Difficulties in learning fractions lies between conceptual and procedural knowledge. Students focus on numerators or denominators as separate numbers rather than thinking of the fraction as a single number another difficulty is children identifying the procedure and how they came up with their answer. The materials that will be used to design this game are the Common Core standards 5.NF.A.l,(adding and subtracting fractions), 5.NF.A.2 (Solving word problems). My experimental group will be using the game to improve on fractions and my control group will be using their notebooks and pencils for regular teaching strategies used to learn fractions.

Procedures
I would like to know whether my control or experimental group is effective for children to learn fractions, The experimental group will be responsible to solve fractions and fraction word problems. Students will be working in a group against the other group, to see who can come up with the answer within 5 mins, before time runs out. This will help students collaborate with each other in groups and use critical thinking to solve and explain how they came up with an answer. The control group will be working individually to solve fractions and fraction word problems.