A downloadable game for Android

Introduction

This is a mobile application that can be used by teachers to accelerate their students learning in a fun and engaging way. The students are tasked with running around the classroom, following clues and solving problems to unlock new clues.

Application Description

The application encourages students to answer questions and learn in a fun and engaging way. This can increase the rate that the students learn and increase the retention of information, making teaching overall more effective (Bavi 2018). Using clues and making the students find the question as a location in the classroom can increase the student’s spatial awareness skills in comparison to a simple paper-based quiz (Lin C-H, Chen C-M, & Lou Y-C 2013). Many teachers already use games in the classroom to great effect (Russo, Bragg, & Russo 2021), this shows that gamifying learning not only makes it fun for students to learn but also encourages them to understand the content more so that they can beat their friends in the classroom games.

Using augmented reality in this application is advantageous as it allows for the students to move around the classroom and interact with it, strengthening their spatial awareness (Lin C-H, Chen C-M, & Lou Y-C 2013). Augmented reality is a better choice for this application than virtual reality as it is more accessible, teachers and schools don’t have to source multiple, expensive VR headsets for a class of students, and it opens more opportunity for collaboration as multiple people can see the screen of a phone or tablet, allowing for students to be placed in groups.

Interactions

The interaction that are used in the application are necessary because, in the case of the multi-choice response, an answer to the question has to be chosen and in the case of the image targets, they represent the questions in real-life, giving a visual goal for the user to look for when following the clue given to them. Finally, the hint button is simply there to allow the user to reduce the clutter on the screen.

Technical Development

The application is designed to run on an Android phone or tablet and should be self-explanatory. When first opening the application, the user is presented with a clue (or hint) to find the first image target. Once the user has found the first image target and scanned it with their phone, a 3D model will appear above the image target and a question will be presented to them at the top of the screen. They will then have the option to interact with any of 4 multi-choice options at the bottom of the screen to submit their answer.

3D Models Used

This is simply a themed cube; it is a cube because the question asks what the shape is and the cube provides the information to the user as to what the correct option is.

The 3D model and textures were both made by me in Blender and Substance painter respectively.

This is simply a triangular prism themed after a Toblerone, the question asks what the shape is and the shape provides the information to the user as to what the correct option is.

The 3D model was made by me in Blender and the textures were obtained from internet from:

http://www.chocozone.net/index.php

https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/toblerone-milk-chocolate-package-3d-model-1768812

This is a themed sphere after an orange, it provides the information to the user to answer the question.

The 3D model was made by me in Blender and the textures were partly made by me while incorporating the texture found here:

https://www.texturecan.com/details/452/

This is a themed scroll; it contains text on the texture that provides the information required to answer the question.

The 3D model and textures were both made by me in Blender and Substance Painter respectively.

This is a model of a caterpillar and 5 apples, it provides the information to the user that is required to answer the question.

The 3D models and textures were all downloaded from the internet from these sources:

https://free3d.com/3d-model/caterpillar-v1--108081.html

https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/apple-cartoon-3d-1495154

the material on the caterpillar is simply a solid green.

References

Bavi, F 2018, 'The Effect of Using Fun Activities on Learning Vocabulary at the Elementary Level'. viewed 19 August 2023, < https://www.academypublication.com/issues2/jltr/vol09/03/24.pdf >

Lin C-H, Chen C-M & Lou Y-C 2013, 'Developing Spatial Orientation and Spatial Memory with a Treasure Hunting Game', JSTOR, viewed 19 August 2023. < https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/jeductechsoci.17.3.79.pdf >

Russo, J, Bragg, L & Russo, T, 2021, 'How primary teachers use games to support their teaching of mathematics', viewed 19 August 2023, < https://dro.deakin.edu.au/articles/journal_contribution/How_primary_teachers_use_games_to_support_their_teaching_of_mathematics/20670195/1 >

The images that were used as the image targets were generated by Stable Diffusion, an AI image generator. The cover image for this Itch.io page was also generated with Stable Diffusion.

The clues displayed to the user in the app were generated by ChatGPT, the conversation for these clues can be found here: https://chat.openai.com/share/70d08d14-d71c-4437-a992-2276811629ba

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