Abstract

Mathstation is an educational serious game in the field of mathematics. It contains three distinct game modes and features math problems for the players to solve while playing. The problems are generated by a configurable math problem generator, that covers math topics relevant for the first through fourth grade of elementary schools in Bavaria, Germany.

Due to the recent COVID-19 Pandemic, schools have had to adapt in order to keep providing education for their pupils, resulting in distance learning and classroom restrictions on site. These result in a learning loss for pupils affected by it. Serious games have been shown to have significant learning yields in scientific school subjects when compared to conventional teaching methods when applied properly. As such, Mathstation makes itself available as a supplemental learning activity, utilizing the educational benefits of serious games as well as the availability of online distribution.

Although it was not possible to test Mathstation's learning yields in proper conditions due to the pandemic, methods of testing have been studied and prepared for eventual future use.

Implementation

The game makes use of a mini game collection structure, enabling different activities for players to choose from. Each of these activities is based on some well defined genres of the video game industry, and is bundled with math solving as an organic part of the game. Theoretically, a player who prefers to play only a single activity can practice the entire available curriculum with their mode of preference, or spread their interest among all of the offered activities.

Moreover, the game includes a math editor interface that is used to convey the math problems in text book similar manner. It allows the configuration of preferred content for problem generation, and can be set to match the users current school subjects. Additionaly, it offers input and feedback based on the player's correctness. Included math subjects range from basic arithmetic to fraction division based on math curricula of grades one to four, making it suitable for kids in that age group. It is most notably missing geometry.

IEEE Publication

A work-in-progress paper has been submitted to the Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN) conference during the earliest stages of implementation. The paper has since been accepted, presented in the live poster session, and published. It can be found here.

Conclusion

Though it is lamentable that COVID-19 related restrictions did not allow for ideal testing conditions at the schools, it is safe to say that the effort is not in vain. At the time of writing, Germany is exiting it's third wave, and as life starts to slowly find it's way to the daily routines of early yesteryear, surely an opportunity to put Mathstation to the test will arise before long.

All of the relevant testing methods and recommendations have been carefully curated and prepared for that day, and are available in chapters evaluation, future work as well as the appendix containing relevant materials.

In conclusion, due to the unavailability of schools, there has not been an opportunity to test the game with it's intended target audience in satisfactory testing conditions. The most important next step is the testing of Mathstation in these conditions, in order to reach a conclusion for the research question of this thesis, which remains unanswered as of now.

[ PDF (optional) ]

[ Slides Kickoff/Final (optional)]

Game Footage

Mathstation - Footage.mp4