The Squares Family: A Game and Story based Microworld for Understanding Arithmetic Concepts designed to attract girls.

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Pareto, L. (2004). The Squares Family: A Game and Story based Microworld for Understanding Arithmetic Concepts designed to attract girls. In L. Cantoni & C. McLoughlin (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2004 (pp. 1567-1574). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
Retrieved from http://www.editlib.org/p/12685.

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Conference Information

World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications (EDMEDIA) 2004
Lugano, Switzerland
2004
ISBN 1-880094-53-3
  Lorenzo Cantoni & Catherine McLoughlin
AACE

More Information on EDMEDIA
Table of Contents

Author

Lena Pareto, University of Trollhättan/Uddevalla, Sweden

Abstract

To address the matter of children's lacking understanding of arithmetic concepts, we have designed an educational environment, a microworld, which we believe stimulate self-regulation and reflective cognition. The microworld is based on an analogical, constructive representation, where mathematical objects and operations are translated into graphical objects and animations. The microworld contains a story, and combined card- and board games. The story is about the Squares Family. It has three purposes: to explain the graphical model; to introduce the games; and to give an understanding of the concepts involved. The purpose of the games is to allow children to use the graphical model and to practice important aspects of arithmetic. The games focus on concepts, not computations, and encourage own discoveries. The combination of a story-based microworld with games shows potential for providing an effective learning environment. The microworld is developed with user-centred design, and there is a prototype in Java.

Keywords

• Children
• Learning Objects
• Games
• Graphics

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