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.

New York has implemented the common core in mathematics for grade level K-12. The common core learning standards are focus,coherence and rigor. These principles requires for students and teachers to focus on their time and energy on fewer topics, in order to form deeper understanding and to apply what is learned. Common core mathematics is designed to understand concepts and not just memorize answers but to solve real- world problems, while demonstrating why the method they chose is accurate.

The exception of common core is to improve a student’s learning and to have a better understanding of concepts. According to the article “Too Much Soon” by Laura Fricke Main,  “The standards alone are not sufficient for appropriate implementation”. In order to have an effective learning standards and implementation it will require better classroom practices, teaching strategies that connects the interest and abilities of children and promote their development and learning. It is argued that in order to implement coherent for students, there will be a need for cooperation and collaboration, It seems that there is more work to do and discussion that needs to occur for common core. The standards alone do not determine how well each state performs because those with high standards do no better than those who are identified as having low standards.

There is work that has to be done for Common Core, in order for students to enhance their learning. If the Common Core is not well implemented than students achievement will be low. There needs to be more practices for students: based on their abilities and interest.  There also has to be new teaching strategies for teachers to use for their lessons plans. I believe creating an educational game may improve a child’s learning. Many children are attracted by games. There is a lot of games in the industry that may have been created for children to improve in math. But there has not been a game that relates to questions that may be in a math common core exam. A game that can help them stay engaged and motivated may allow children to use critical thinking, and help improve on memory. I want to see if a digital Math Common Core game can help improve a student’s achievement and memory?, Will the game help a child critical thinking?, Are they using their memory to learn?.

There are different types of learners and we have to based this upon a child interest and ability. The world of technology is growing rapidly. Using virtual games may engage a child to learn and stay engage, teachers will be able to interact with them and collaborate together.  Gives students a chance to improve on critical thinking and staying focus because of their interest.

Many students have low scores in common core math, there should be an improvement on strategies.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvOnha7XnaQ

Main, L. F. (2012). Too much too soon? Common core math standards in the early years. Early Childhood Education Journal, 40(2), 73-77. doi:10.1007/s10643-011-0484-7

Bush, Sarah. and Karens. “Prerequisite algebra skills and associated misconceptions of Middle Grade Students: A Review”. The Journal of Mathematical Behavior 32.3 (2013) Psycinfo.web. 24.Feb. 2016.

United States has implemented the common core standards, which will aim to better prepare students from K-12 for higher education. Children in Elementary school are required to learn to add, subtract,multiply and divide. Children in Middle school have to learn ratios, rates and proportional relationship. Meanwhile in high school children are required to solve equations. Not only are students required to learn and practice for common core in school, but making the learning environment more fun and engaging for students to learn may help them be encourage in practicing for common core test. A digital educational game is a great way to improve students memory and critical thinking in problem solving.
The cognitive process am studying is memory and critical thinking. I want to see if designing an educational math common core digital game can help improve a student memory and critical thinking by playing a game. When building memory, it goes through a series of 3 components; attention, storage and memory. Each of these components will have an affect in a student’s learning.

Socially Relevant and Unsolved Problem:

My study is socially relevant, because it may help teachers and parents have social interactions and collaboration with the student. Students will also be able to build social skills, this will lead to thinking critically and working on their memory as they get involved in an educational math game. This will help children enhance their performance in state test.
The unsolved problem my study will address is whether a math common core game will enhance a child’s memory and critical thinking. Will teachers be able to use an education game to improve a student’s performance in Math common core?. I believe there has not been a lot of games in the industry that may have been related to a state test, that students can use at school and from home.

Career, Goals & Interest:
This project relates to my career, goals and interest. I am pursuing to become a childhood education teacher, I believe often children get unengage during class after a while of teachers teaching. There has been many new ways to engage and improve a student learning. Recently New York State has contributed a Math Common Core exam, that students are required to take to in order to be considered for the next grade level. Teachers in school put a lot of effort to help students improve their performance. Not only teachers but also parents. Often students are contributed Coach or Kaplan workbooks, students are to go over it and practice. I believe a current way to improve a student learning is by playing educational games. An educational game can help improve a student’s performance in the Math Common Core test and keep them in engaged.
In United States the Common Core Math test has been one of the exams that many children are not doing so well in. Having the opportunity to be able to design an educational game for children is a great way to help and improve their performance. Teachers, parents and students will be able to have full access. Especially parents, they will be able to use an educational game from home, to help their child. I have a great interest in a game design that will help students memory and think critically in problem solving. I currently have a little brother who has taken the common core test and often I have seen there has been a lack of interest in working with workbooks for a period of time.
My goal is to design a game that will help not only my brother but other students to improve their memory and critical thinking through a math game. It will be a great way to overcome their struggle. Pursuing a degree in childhood education, I have had an interest in using technology within a classroom setting , such as educational games.

Have you ever wonder, how you can make learning fun?. That’s Your Right is a fun and engaging interactive game. It teaches students the first ten amendments of the American Constitution. The game is a single/multiplayer digital card game. The player are dealt a hand of cards, each card describes a different scenario that can be positive or negative against the Amendment, Your goal is to correctly applied the amendment tokens on the scenario cards to win points or to take points away from your opponent. This game is completely free with a platform that is found online.  Overall That’s Your Right may be very helpful for students in Middle and High School. Teachers may also implement this game in their curriculum to make learning fun and engaging. The message you will receive by this game is knowing that your Bill of Right is important in your life today.

This week I played an educational game named Digital Compass by Commom sense. Digital compass gives kids the freedom to explore how decisions made in their digital life can impact their relationships and future. Digital Compass is downloadable, it is available in iTunes for  tablets,iPhone,android and etc. In this game you choose one digital character out of the eight. Each character has its own story line. Your goal is to review his or her story line. For every situation, you make a decision for them. When you pick the answer that shows the right outcome, you will get points. When you choose the incorrect response you lose points.  The game is trying to teach different citizenship lessons in internet safety,privacy,relationships,communications,cyber bullying,self image,reputation and many more. The learning experiences the game is attempting to create for the player is to step into the shoes of one of the eight characters to experience their lifestyle. It wants to teach about the right thing to do in a situation and to inform people of different and better options. Another learning experience its trying to teach is how to deal with the ups and downs occurrences involved in the situation.Over time the economy is building more educational games to help children learn and stay engaged. Sometimes teaching using an interactive game among people , may be more engaging. I think Digital Compass is creative and engaging way to reflect about dilemmas that are routine in young people’s lives today.