The lesson plan
We designed our lesson for a fourth grade of an Austrian New middle school. The lesson was held as part of a project day where the class was to try out various serious games designed by future teachers (like us). The language used in class was English as well as German, when needed. We had tablets with the game saved on them at our disposal for the students to play with. So this was our initial plan:
We designed our lesson for a fourth grade of an Austrian New middle school. The lesson was held as part of a project day where the class was to try out various serious games designed by future teachers (like us). The language used in class was English as well as German, when needed. We had tablets with the game saved on them at our disposal for the students to play with. So this was our initial plan:
ad 5) Cloze
Use these words / phrases to fill the gaps: conserving, consumers, consumption, frequently,
lifestyles, processed and packaged, resources, sustain, waste. We are all (1) … … … … … … … … , even if we don’t work and have a regular income, and can’t spend as much money as working adults. As consumers, we use the Earth’s natural (2) … … … … … … … … in different ways. These resources are limited and, unfortunately, statistics show that the world population is using too much of them. Can we go on like this? Can we (3) … … … … … … … … our present level of (4) … … … … … … … …? In fact, some people believe that we’ll have to change our (5) … … … … … … … … . This means (6) … … … … … … … … energy and generating less (7) … … … … … … … …. And because air travel is so bad for the environment, we won’t be able to fly as (8) … … … … … … … …. And of course, we’ll have to change the way we eat – more fresh, locally grown, food and fewer (9) … … … … … … … … products.
Key: 1 consumers, 2 resources, 3 sustain, 4 consumption, 5 lifestyles, 6 conserving, 7 waste, 8 frequently, 9 processed and packaged.
The cloze was taken from Philip Devlin’s lesson draft (2009: 10f).
How it really was
However, it turned out that we’ve overestimated our student’s English-skills (in our defence: this was the first time we ever met this class). But as we were spontaneous and flexible this wasn’t a great problem: We simply adjusted our plan to the given circumstances and added more German translations. What we basically did was leaving out the part with the fill-in-the-blank text, giving the students more time to enjoy the game and to optimise their scores in both the normal and the challenge mode. We also spent a little more time introducing the game or introducing words that might be necessary for understanding the game respectively. So in the beginning we asked the students what sorts of packaging materials they knew and wrote down their suggestions on the blackboard (e.g. plastics, cardboard, paper, aluminium etc.), including German translations where necessary. This way we made sure the students understood what the game is about and how they could improve their scores.
Playing and teaching experience
It pretty soon turned out that we wouldn’t be able to implement our original lesson plan, which would have been more suitable for higher classes with matching English skills. However, the adjusted plan actually worked very well. The students were highly motivated to play Pack me! and many were quite hard to stop from playing when we tried to continue the lesson. (Luckily, the game’s ringing sounds always revealed who wasn’t paying attention.) In the future, one might consider letting the students play the game only at the end of the lesson or simply collecting the tablets (or whatever medium is used for playing the game) to prevent the students being distracted when continuing the lesson.
Later on the class’s regular teacher told us that it was quite amazing how some pupils reacted to the game, showing an amount of motivation and engagement hardly ever to be seen in their normal school lessons. Also it was quite interesting to see one of these students losing his interest when we handed out the list describing the products used in the game to further explain how the score was calculated – this loss of interest was very visible in his body language which changed when we asked him to stop playing the game for a while to look at the work sheet (it might’ve reminded him too much of a regular lesson).
We tried to simulate a real world situation with our game, namely grocery shopping, which is otherwise hard to carry out in school. We drew the students’ attention to a very specific aspect of it, i.e. the problem of packaging, making them think about a very important issue they might not have considered in their everyday life shopping experiences to this point. They repeatedly practiced buying the “right” products, motivated by a maximum score which they were able to reach with different products. Still they always had to apply the same rules, i.e. choosing the least harmful packaging. Ideally, they will draw on the knowledge and experience they acquired in our lesson and playing the game and transfer it into their real life, thinking twice before buying cornflakes with outer packaging or lemonade in an aluminium can. (cf. Klopfer et al. 2009: 8f; Gee 2007: 24, 37)
Use these words / phrases to fill the gaps: conserving, consumers, consumption, frequently,
lifestyles, processed and packaged, resources, sustain, waste. We are all (1) … … … … … … … … , even if we don’t work and have a regular income, and can’t spend as much money as working adults. As consumers, we use the Earth’s natural (2) … … … … … … … … in different ways. These resources are limited and, unfortunately, statistics show that the world population is using too much of them. Can we go on like this? Can we (3) … … … … … … … … our present level of (4) … … … … … … … …? In fact, some people believe that we’ll have to change our (5) … … … … … … … … . This means (6) … … … … … … … … energy and generating less (7) … … … … … … … …. And because air travel is so bad for the environment, we won’t be able to fly as (8) … … … … … … … …. And of course, we’ll have to change the way we eat – more fresh, locally grown, food and fewer (9) … … … … … … … … products.
Key: 1 consumers, 2 resources, 3 sustain, 4 consumption, 5 lifestyles, 6 conserving, 7 waste, 8 frequently, 9 processed and packaged.
The cloze was taken from Philip Devlin’s lesson draft (2009: 10f).
How it really was
However, it turned out that we’ve overestimated our student’s English-skills (in our defence: this was the first time we ever met this class). But as we were spontaneous and flexible this wasn’t a great problem: We simply adjusted our plan to the given circumstances and added more German translations. What we basically did was leaving out the part with the fill-in-the-blank text, giving the students more time to enjoy the game and to optimise their scores in both the normal and the challenge mode. We also spent a little more time introducing the game or introducing words that might be necessary for understanding the game respectively. So in the beginning we asked the students what sorts of packaging materials they knew and wrote down their suggestions on the blackboard (e.g. plastics, cardboard, paper, aluminium etc.), including German translations where necessary. This way we made sure the students understood what the game is about and how they could improve their scores.
Playing and teaching experience
It pretty soon turned out that we wouldn’t be able to implement our original lesson plan, which would have been more suitable for higher classes with matching English skills. However, the adjusted plan actually worked very well. The students were highly motivated to play Pack me! and many were quite hard to stop from playing when we tried to continue the lesson. (Luckily, the game’s ringing sounds always revealed who wasn’t paying attention.) In the future, one might consider letting the students play the game only at the end of the lesson or simply collecting the tablets (or whatever medium is used for playing the game) to prevent the students being distracted when continuing the lesson.
Later on the class’s regular teacher told us that it was quite amazing how some pupils reacted to the game, showing an amount of motivation and engagement hardly ever to be seen in their normal school lessons. Also it was quite interesting to see one of these students losing his interest when we handed out the list describing the products used in the game to further explain how the score was calculated – this loss of interest was very visible in his body language which changed when we asked him to stop playing the game for a while to look at the work sheet (it might’ve reminded him too much of a regular lesson).
We tried to simulate a real world situation with our game, namely grocery shopping, which is otherwise hard to carry out in school. We drew the students’ attention to a very specific aspect of it, i.e. the problem of packaging, making them think about a very important issue they might not have considered in their everyday life shopping experiences to this point. They repeatedly practiced buying the “right” products, motivated by a maximum score which they were able to reach with different products. Still they always had to apply the same rules, i.e. choosing the least harmful packaging. Ideally, they will draw on the knowledge and experience they acquired in our lesson and playing the game and transfer it into their real life, thinking twice before buying cornflakes with outer packaging or lemonade in an aluminium can. (cf. Klopfer et al. 2009: 8f; Gee 2007: 24, 37)
Pack me! was made by:
Bernadette Sophie Auberger
Katarina Nikic
Carina Schneeweiß
Additional help from: Abbas Saleh and Johannes Scharl
This game was created under the supervision of our professors:
Alexander Schmoelz, University of Vienna, Centre for Teacher Education
Dr. Chris Walsh, Torrens University Adelaide
Feel free to contact us for further information or to give us feedback: packaging.game@gmail.com
To read our description of the game go to:
http://www.playful-pedagogy.org/pack-me.html
Bernadette Sophie Auberger
Katarina Nikic
Carina Schneeweiß
Additional help from: Abbas Saleh and Johannes Scharl
This game was created under the supervision of our professors:
Alexander Schmoelz, University of Vienna, Centre for Teacher Education
Dr. Chris Walsh, Torrens University Adelaide
Feel free to contact us for further information or to give us feedback: packaging.game@gmail.com
To read our description of the game go to:
http://www.playful-pedagogy.org/pack-me.html
Resources
Devlin, Philip (2009): Themenmodule zur Verbraucherbildung. The Ecological Footprint and Sustainable Consumption, Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband. available at: http://www.verbraucherbildung.de/verbraucherwissen/ecological-footprint-and-sustainable-consumption
Gee, James Paul (2007): Good video games, the human mind, and good learning, in: J.P. Gee: Good Video Games Plus Good Learning (Vol. 27). Peter Lang. Chicago. available at: http://rhetoricalpeaks.pbworks.com/f/Good+Video+Games+Gee001%5B1%5D.pdf
Klopfer, Eric / Osterweil, Scot / Groff, Jennifer / Haas, Jason (2009): Using the technology of today, in the classroom of today. The Instructional Power of digital games. social networking. simulations. and How Teachers Can Leverage Them, The Education arcade. available at: http://education.mit.edu/papers/GamesSimsSocNets_EdArcade.pdf
Devlin, Philip (2009): Themenmodule zur Verbraucherbildung. The Ecological Footprint and Sustainable Consumption, Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband. available at: http://www.verbraucherbildung.de/verbraucherwissen/ecological-footprint-and-sustainable-consumption
Gee, James Paul (2007): Good video games, the human mind, and good learning, in: J.P. Gee: Good Video Games Plus Good Learning (Vol. 27). Peter Lang. Chicago. available at: http://rhetoricalpeaks.pbworks.com/f/Good+Video+Games+Gee001%5B1%5D.pdf
Klopfer, Eric / Osterweil, Scot / Groff, Jennifer / Haas, Jason (2009): Using the technology of today, in the classroom of today. The Instructional Power of digital games. social networking. simulations. and How Teachers Can Leverage Them, The Education arcade. available at: http://education.mit.edu/papers/GamesSimsSocNets_EdArcade.pdf
