Geo@NET in the context of the Platform of Assisted Learning from Aveiro University, Portugal

Handbook of Research on Serious Games as Educational, Business and Research Tools Maria Manuela Cruz-Cunha Polytechnic Institute of Cรกvado and Ave, Portugal

Volume I

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Handbook of research on serious games as educational, business and research tools / Maria Manuela Cruz-Cunha, editor. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary: “This book presents research on the most recent technological developments in all fields of knowledge or disciplines of computer games development, including planning, design, development, marketing, business management, users and behavior”--Provided by publisher.

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Computer games--Research. 3. Internet games--Design. 4. Internet games-Research. I. Cruz-Cunha, Maria Manuela, 1964QA76.76.C672H3518 2012 794.8’1536--dc23 2011052073

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Chapter 33

Geo@NET in the context of the Platform of Assisted Learning from Aveiro University, Portugal Elisabete Peixoto University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, Portugal Estela Martins University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, Portugal António Batel Anjo University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, Portugal Alexandre Silva University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, Portugal

ABSTRACT Geo@NET is a computer game, played online, whose main purpose is to motivate students to the study of Geosciences. This is the most recent game included in the Platform of Assisted Learning of “Projecto Matemática Ensino” (PmatE), and the first geosciences online game that was developed in Portugal. Geo@NET project involves the conception, planning, and development of several Question Generator Models, for online games and competitions between students of the 3rd cycle of Portuguese Basic Instruction. The main challenge of the game is to find the correct answers (true/false) in a set of affirmations. Only solving the questions of each level of the game allows the player to go to the next level. Since 2009, the number of games played in geo@NET has increased, which encourages for further developments of this project. Thus, this chapter aims to describe QGMs, the development of the game, and the results obtained so far.

INTRODUCTION The majority of people consider that playing games is a funny activity, in opposition to learning, a “boring” activity. Moreover, the “thrill of victory and agony of defeat” is experienced repeatedly DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-0149-9.ch033

throughout playing games, maybe because the immediate mental stimulation that the game player experiences can be exhilarating (Moursund, 2006).

So, the fun and mental stimulation of games can be used as an important component for formal and informal education. Educational games are seen as technologies that have an application

Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Geo@NET in the context of the Platform of Assisted Learning from Aveiro University, Portugal

beyond entertainment (Stapleton, 2004) and are a good example of activities that can be used as a learning device to complement other teaching methods (Alexandre & Diogo, 1990; Moursund, 2006; Peixoto & Martins, 2010b; Peixoto et al., 2009). “Gaming in the science classroom has the potential to deeply engage students” (Annetta et al., 2006, p. 21). Educational games can act as an extension of the classroom, helping students that don’t succeed with conventional teaching methods. When students are playing, their goal is to win the game, which is a very motivating factor. On the other hand, these games involve the player in the task, contributing to increased creativity and critical thinking (Gredler, 2004).

Geosciences is an area of utmost importance in our lives, namely in protection of the environment, in prevention of geological hazards and even in medicine. However, there is a general lack of interest for the study of this scientific area (Carneiro et al., 2004). This is due to the fact that citizens don’t know what geologists do (Brilha, 2004) and they don’t know and/or understand the geologists’ contributions to solve society’s problems (Andrade, 2001).

School results have also shown that traditional teaching methods have not been able to motivate students to the study of Geosciences. Therefore, it is necessary to “innovate, creating new teaching methods, that put students in the centre of the learning process, and where teachers are mediators” (Anjo, 2006, p. 56).

One of the factors that can contribute to the renewal of Geosciences Education is the use of diversified resources (Marques et al., 2001). In this way, to increase the interest for the study of Geosciences, to demonstrate its importance in society and to promote scientific literacy, it’s possible to use non-formal teaching methods, such as Internet and computer games (Peixoto & Martins, 2010a; Peixoto & Martins, in press; Peixoto et al., 2008).

Once computer games are so popular among young people it’s important to use them in a scientific area that, at least in Portugal, has scarce resources. geo@NET seeks to contribute to change this situation and to increase the number of educational games for this scientific area. Besides that, it intends to create an attractive environment to the study of Earth Sciences . To realize if this type of game can indeed enhance students’ motivation to the study of Geosciences and, at the same time, to evaluate the use of PEA by students and teachers, geo@NET is now the subject of a PhD thesis.

This chapter aims to describe the origin and development of PmatE, referencing the competitions that, each year, are organized at the University of Aveiro. More specifically, it describes question generator models and, particularly, their application on geo@NET, bearing in mind the results obtained so far. Finally a few proposals for future work are presented, along the possibility of the development of a new type of games, considering all that has already been achieved.

GAMES AND COMPETITIONS OF “PROJECTO MATEMÁTICA ENSINO” (PmatE) “Projecto Matemática Ensino” (PmatE) was created in 1989, by the Department of Mathematics of the University of Aveiro. Considering the weak results in Mathematics, PmatE introduced new methods for the study of this scientific area, namely online games and competitions for all degrees of education.

The main purpose of PmatE was to create and/or to increase the interest for Mathematics, through the promotion of computer literacy and study habits (Miranda et al., 2007). Initially intended only to Mathematics, this project has been recently extended to other scientific areas, including Geosciences (Peixoto, 2009).

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Geo@NET in the context of the Platform of Assisted Learning from Aveiro University, Portugal

In order to accomplish the objectives initially proposed, PmatE developed specific software, the Question Generator Models (QGM). This software is the basis of all computer games and competitions that take place, each year, between students of Portuguese schools.

QGMs can only be acceded in the Platform of Assisted Learning (PEA) of PmatE, where anyone can register (http://PmatE.ua.pt), choose their profile (student, teacher or user), and play different games, organized by scientific areas (Miranda et al., 2007).

PEA “is based on a learning philosophy by evaluation and it complements both the manual and classroom, never substituting or diminishing the important role that the professor has in traditional education” (Anjo et al., 2006, p.1).

Here, students can play at anytime and results are immediately available for the teachers, so that they can examine the subjects that are more difficult to their students and adequate their lessons to overcome those difficulties.

QGMs can help teachers innovate their teaching methods, bearing in mind that the teacher’s role is essential to clarify the doubts that sometimes occur during the games available at the PEA. PEA also allows teachers to make tests, using QGMs, and to obtain immediately the results of those tests, which makes easier the student’s evaluation.

When students are playing a game, they can accede to the level they lost and actually see the question(s) where they responded incorrectly.

Finally, and considering the fact that this software is presented as games, organized by cycles of instruction, QGMs link the curriculum to the challenge inherent to all computer games (Anjo, 2006).

Results from mathematic games and competitions have demonstrated that students are more motivated to study and learn when they are playing a game (Anjo et al., 2006). Furthermore, since its beginning, there has been an increase of students’ mathematical abilities and their motiva-

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tion for the study of this area has also risen. Also, students consider this experience very important to the familiarization with the ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) (Miranda et al., 2007).

I. FROM THE QUESTION GENERATOR MODELS TO THE FINAL APPLICATION PEA includes games for several scientific areas, each one of them organized in levels. To formulate the games on which the competitions are based it’s necessary to elaborate specific software, the QGMs.

I.1 Question Generator Models (QGM) The games and competitions included at the PEA are based on an atomic unit of the system of information, the question generator model (from now on designated as QGM) (Vieira et al., 2001).

A QGM is a generator of questions that follows a classification by scientific and educational objectives and difficulty levels. The concept of QGM contains two very important characteristics: flexibility and modularity. Besides that, the main property of a QGM is its high randomness, which allows several combinations in the same QGM. Thereby, the questions in successive games are always different, but with the same difficulty level and objectives (Silva et al., 2007). As a consequence, two computers side by side will have different questions despite being from the same QGM. In these games it was chosen a specific type of answers: multiple response/answering questions of the type True-False-Generalized (Vieira et al., 2001). This means the user is always confronted with a set of propositions to which the response can only be true or false. Since the games are

Geo@NET in the context of the Platform of Assisted Learning from Aveiro University, Portugal

based on a True-False-Generalized type, all the propositions may be false or true, or both, in a random manner. As such, it is possible to generate dynamically questions instead storing static questions in a database.

An accomplishment of the QGM will result in an enunciation which is always composed of a common text and a set of four propositions taken at random from k, with k ≥ 4, where k is the total number of groups of propositions (R1, R2, R3, R4…). When a QGM has more than four groups of propositions, in the moment of its accomplishment, four of them are randomly selected from the total of groups.

QGM also contains a system that allows increasing the formulation hypothesis of the possible

enunciations. This system presents wider dynamism to the propositions presented and as a consequence, it stimulates the level of concentration of the students since they never know how many of the propositions will be true or false. Another advantage of its use is the balance between false and true patterns.

The complete preparation of a QGM involves several stages (Silva et al., 2007; Miranda et al., 2007). First it’s necessary to write down all the possibilities (text and propositions) for the QGM and classify each answer by scientific and pedagogical objectives, i.e., elaborate the QGM’s codification.

In this stage it’s necessary to transcribe all of this information to a LATEX file.

Figure 1. Portion of the LATEX file from the QGM “faults and folds”

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Geo@NET in the context of the Platform of Assisted Learning from Aveiro University, Portugal

Figure 1 shows a portion of the QGM dedicated to the study of faults and folds. This QGM has four groups of propositions, but this picture only represents two of them (R2 and R3). The 1st column indicates the group of propositions, the 2nd shows all propositions possible for that group and the 3rd indicates the conditions in which a certain proposition becomes true (symbols: “∧” – and; “∨” – or).

These conditions depend on the parameters, the signs and the expressions generated. This step is known as validation of the propositions.

After the validation process follows the attribution of an identification code according to scientific area, theme, sub-theme, main and secondary objectives, cycle of instruction (1 to 5, being 1 the first cycle of Portuguese Basic Instruction and 5 the University) and difficulty level (1-very easy, to 5- very difficult). At this point it’s also indicated the type of QGM that was elaborated and, if necessary, any additional information. The final step is the evaluation process, to assure the QGM’s scientific and educational quality. At this point, QGMs are ready to use and to be included in the games.

It’s also important to point out that there are different types of QGMs, which is related, in some cases, to the existence of pictures side by side with the initial text and, in others, to the existence of pictures accompanying the propositions.

I.2 Language of QGM Representations The complexity of the QGMs demand that the transcription process to the data processing system follows very clear criteria having in mind the minimization of process errors. Furthermore, all members of the QGM transcription team should be able to easily understand the logic line-up of the computer code of the QGM. In this way, to establish a set of elementary rules of programming, a Language of Model Representation (LRM) (Anjo

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et al., 2003; Isidro et al., 2003) was developed, in 2001, based on many LATEX concepts, once it’s very familiar to the scientific community.

The QGMs are transcript from paper to LRM and stored on the database. In order to interpret LRM language, a LRM processor was developed.

LRM uses a set of symbols with different functions for representation and concretization. The LRM processor interprets past instructions and then, if necessary, converts the final expression in MathML. This system enables the QGMs programming team not only to be able to develop intense work but also to achieve high levels of coherence in the programming style. Therefore a same QGM can be both programmed and revised by various people.

I.3 Technologies Applied In terms of software, the system was developed with Microsoft SQL Server (2000-2005) and Microsoft Visual Studio (Visual Basic and C#).

To interpret LRM language the processor was developed in Visual Basic 6.

From the QGM up to its final application, everything was developed with C#, in Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.

With respect to hardware the system has been divided according to the logic division of services: • •

Server dedicated to the Management System of the database.

Web Server, Web Services and application logic.

The solution was to build a core of servers, distributing services through four machines and the actual architecture allows us to create mechanisms of redundancy at the application level. Any of these servers can be replicated if necessary.

Geo@NET in the context of the Platform of Assisted Learning from Aveiro University, Portugal

Finally, to represent data on the user side we follow HTML as the language of document definition, combined with MathML (Mathematical Markup Language) and SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics).

MathML allow us to represent mathematic text and SVG allows drawing vector graphics with different effects, animation and zooms.

Considering the high degree of randomness, the system should be able to represent a mathematic formula in any part of the screen and in an unknown number of times. That is to say, it should be possible to have a variable amount of mathematical text spread around the screen randomly. Besides this, figure representations with high quality and real time approaches would also be possible.

I.4 Final Applications of QGMS QGMs are, as mentioned earlier, organized to form the games and competitions.

During each competition, the challenge is very simple: players must overcome all levels of the game in the shortest time possible, correctly answering to all the questions in the screen. Only the correct validation of each answer allows transition to the next level (Miranda et al., 2007). To do so, each player has two “lives” per level and questions are never repeated (Anjo, 2006). If the player gives a wrong answer he has to restart the game at level one.

Every year, all competitions begin with training games. Their main purpose is to prepare players to the competitions that take place, each year, at the University of Aveiro. It’s important to mention that there is, also, an award ceremony to the top 3 teams and schools. These awards include educational materials, such as school books and laboratory equipments.

The high number of accesses to PmatE’s webpage, especially in the days before the competitions, clearly demonstrates the success and the impact that PmatE has in Portuguese schools.

II. geo@NET: QGMS IN GEOSCIENCES EDUCATION Geosciences is an area very important in society, once it’s related to the study of many problems that we face daily, as the depletion of natural resources, protection of the environment, prevention of floods, seismic and volcanic risks, and also human health.

Therefore it’s crucial the reinforcement of this scientific area in Portuguese education. The introduction of ICT and new educational materials in Geosciences intends to modify and/or to readjust teaching and learning of this scientific area. Besides that, these materials can help students visualize several geological concepts and the principles of geology, and alert them to the importance of Geosciences in today’s life.

The positive results obtained with PEA were the basis for its application to the study of Geosciences (Peixoto, 2009). The game for this area is geo@NET and it’s also based on QGMs. Like all other competitions, geo@NET begins with training games. Besides preparing players to the competition, these training games aim to reach a large number of people, and not only the students that come to the final competitions at the University. This is possible because anyone can register on PmatE’s website. On the other hand, there is a link in the website that directs players to the subjects that form these training games and at the end of each training game, students can access the PEA and verify their answers. In this way, there’s an appreciation of the students’ role in their own learning (Peixoto, 2009).

In these games, students can play individually or in teams, in the training games, and in teams of two, in the competitions that take place at the university. The fact that players must form teams can contribute to improve teamwork. geo@NET aims, also, to be a new way for young people to study Geosciences in a daily basis and/or in their free time. Furthermore,

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Geo@NET in the context of the Platform of Assisted Learning from Aveiro University, Portugal

Figure 2. Example of one possible accomplishment from level 7 of geo@NET

geo@NET intends to be a type of software that can be used by teachers in their classes. Here, teachers can play with their students and, at the same time, overcome the difficulties encountered in certain levels.

Currently, geo@NET is assigned to the students that are attending the 3rd cycle (7th, 8th and 9th grades) of Portuguese Basic Instruction. In this cycle of instruction, students have a subject denominated “Natural Sciences”, which includes several contents of Geosciences, such as Planet Earth in the Universe, Earth’s subsystems, Earth’s Internal Structure, minerals and rocks, Earth’s internal and external dynamics, Plate Tectonics, geological time, fossils and the reconstruction of Earth’s evolution and history, and protection of the environment. However, nowadays geo@ NET only includes some of these subjects, being some QGMs under construction. This allows that year after year, the game is always a little differ-

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ent, with the introduction of new subjects and, consequently, QGMs into the game.

In geo@NET, QGMs are organized in 15 levels. Each level can be formed by one or several QGMs. If a certain level has more than one QGM, one of them will be randomly selected each time a student starts to play.

The first QGM presented here (Figure 2) corresponds, at the present time, to level 7 (study of faults and folds) and it has a difficulty level of 3.

The main purpose of this QGM is that students identify geological structures as faults and folds.

Besides that, its propositions also focus on the formation of such structures and their relationship with the forces that act on Earth (Peixoto, 2009; Peixoto & Martins, in press).

This QGM has an initial text followed by a picture. This is a type of QGM where the picture influences the validation of certain propositions.

Thereby, in those cases, the player has to make

Geo@NET in the context of the Platform of Assisted Learning from Aveiro University, Portugal

Figure 3. Example of an accomplishment from QGM “study of volcanism”

an association between the proposition and the picture.

In this example, players must signalize true answers (numbers 2 and 3) and false answers (numbers 1 and 4). Only this validation will allow transition to the next level of the game, in this case, level 8 (Peixoto, 2009; Peixoto et al., 2008; Peixoto et al., 2009).

The next QGM (Figure 3) is a little different, once it has pictures in all answers. Thus, in each answer players must relate each proposition with a picture. In this example, players must signalize true answers (numbers 2, 3 and 4) and false answers (number 1). This QGM was recently elaborated and it’s not currently included in the game, but it will be included very briefly. Its difficulty level is also 3. The main purpose of this QGM is to recognize the parts of a volcano, the manifestations of secondary volcanism and the areas of intense volcanic activity. It’s also intended that players distinguish lava from magma and the types of volcanic activity. Finally, in some

accomplishments players will have to recognize some materials that people should have available in areas of intense volcanic activity.

II.1 geo@NET: 2009 Edition The 1st edition of geo@NET took place in 2009.

The training games involved the participation of 2651 students, who played 5686 games. Each day were played, in average, 3 games and each player performed, by average, 2 games. In the four days before the competition, 1061 games were played and one single player performed 131 of those games (Peixoto, 2009; Peixoto & Martins, 2010b). However, none of the players reached the end of the game. The last level successfully overcame was the 14th (faults and folds), and only by one player.

On the other hand, there were a significant number of games, 44%, that ended in levels 1(space exploration) and 2 (geocentric and heliocentric theories) (fig. 4). We point out that no

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Geo@NET in the context of the Platform of Assisted Learning from Aveiro University, Portugal

player lost the game in levels 10 (rock cycle), 12 (sedimentary rocks) and 13 (metamorphic rocks).

This could be explained by the reduced number of players that reached these levels, which may be the best students.

The high number of games that ended in levels 1 and 2 is the most negative aspect of the 2009’s training games. geo@NET was a new competition and students may not have had enough time to familiarize themselves with the game (Peixoto, 2009), what could explain these results. At the same time, the short average in the number of games played by each student can also explain why so many games ended in the initial levels.

These results of the training games could also be explained by the subjects that were included in the QGMs and the Geosciences curricula in Portuguese Basic schools. This problem will be discussed in the conclusions.

The geo@NET 2009 final competition took place in April 28th at the University of Aveiro, with the participation of 34 students from two schools.

There was a big difference between the number of students involved in the training games and in the competition, which can be attributed to the short period of time that schools had to organize all the logistic necessary for the participation in the competition (Peixoto, 2009).

In this competition, the organization of the QGMs into 15 levels was identical to the one of the training games (Peixoto, 2009; Peixoto et al., 2009). Similarly to these, no player reached the end of the game and there were a high number of games ending in levels 1 and 2. The last level successfully overcame was level 10 (rock cycle).

In this competition, no one lost the game in levels 5 (earth’s subsystems) and 9 (study of minerals). Once again, this can be explained by the reduced number of students that reached these levels. In the case of level 9, only two teams of players reached this level. At the same time, there were a high number of games that ended in levels 1 and 2. This can be explained, once again, by

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the little time that training games were available and, by the other hand, to the questions that arose during the game. In this way, there could be questions that were very difficult to the students who played the game.

At this point it was practically impossible to conclude relatively to the QGMs that form the intermediate and final levels of geo@NET, since only a few students reached the latest levels of the game and no one seemed to be able to finish the game. Besides that, the results obtained in the training games and in the final competition showed that there could be a problem related to the game itself, that made many players lose the game in the initial levels.

In November 2009 was created a diagnostic test, TDgeo, with the purpose of establishing the difficulty level of all QGMs that compose geo@ NET. There are several differences between TDgeo and the normal geo@NET games. TDgeo is not organized by levels and in opposition to the normal games, players could see immediately all the questions from all levels. Furthermore, they could answer by the order they wanted, and they also had the possibility of not answering a particular question. This was done by selecting a third option, “do not answer” (NR). In TDgeo all students played individually and when they finished the game they had to submit their TDgeo, pressing the “Submit” button in the end of the Internet page.

TDgeo had the participation of 364 students that played all the 15 levels of geo@NET. According to the results obtained in the first edition of geo@ NET, we expected to have a very high number of incorrect answers in the QGMs that form the initial levels of the game. However, the QGMs with the higher number of incorrect answers were the ones that form levels 9 (study of minerals), 11 (igneous rocks) and 14 (faults and folds), followed by level 2 (geocentric and heliocentric theories).

These results show that the QGMs in level 2 can be considered of high difficulty, since there were

Geo@NET in the context of the Platform of Assisted Learning from Aveiro University, Portugal

a significant number of incorrect answers in these QGMs. This could explain why so many training and competition games, by levels, ended here.

Results also show that there are some QGMs that can be considered of even higher difficulty that the ones that form the initial levels of the game. This information is new, since there were a reduced number of registered games in these QGMs until the implementation of TDgeo. In these QGMs, related to the study of minerals, igneous rocks, and faults and folds, students have to make a relationship between propositions and a picture related to it. The simplest explanation to this fact is the very small size of the screen which many Portuguese schools received in the last two years and that are also used in the final competitions.

This can affect the pictures’ dimensions, which in turn can make difficult the observation of all the details in the picture. But we believe that this is not the only explanation for the failure in these QGMs, which will be discussed in the conclusions.

II.2 geo@NET: 2010 Edition According to the results from TDgeo, geo@NET’s levels for 2010 were reorganized. In this way, the initial levels of geo@NET were composed by the QGMs that had high numbers of correct answers in TDgeo. Furthermore, we also organized the QGMs to obtain a sequence in the subjects, but also keeping in mind the difficulty of the different levels revealed by TDgeo.

In 2009, the QGM “Space Exploration” formed level 1 of geo@NET. As results from TDgeo demonstrated, this QGM can be difficult for the students. On the other hand, the QGM “Life and Planet Earth” (at that time in level 4) was the one with less wrong answers.

With this information in mind, there was a particular exchange in the first and last levels of geo@NET for this edition. So, the QGM “Life and Planet Earth”, was transferred to level 1 and the QGM “Space Exploration”, previously on

level 1, was transferred to level 15. Moreover, we introduced new QGMs, related to the study of some aspects of volcanism, in the latest levels of the game (levels 11, 12 and 13), as an attempt to, at some degree, renew the existing game.

As in 2009, the 2010 edition of geo@NET was initiated by training games, in which 9536 games were played. Of these, 1829 games were played in the three days before the competition.

The results from the training games show that the level with a higher number of incorrect answers is level 15. This level contains the QGM that was previously in the level 1 (Space Exploration), along with the QGM “Minerals in everyday life” (in this level since the beginning). This seems to indicate that these QGMs are, in fact, difficult to the students. On the other hand, level 1 has a significant number of wrong answers, a situation that didn’t occur in TDgeo. This could be explained by the fact that there are several users that only access the game to see it, not to play it. Besides that, this number also includes players that lost internet connection and, in this case, we really don’t know in what level they were playing and/ or if they lost at all.

The introduction of new QGMs in levels 11, 12 and 13 doesn’t seem to affect the numbers of incorrect answers, since the numbers of incorrect answers are similar to those of the other levels.

In these training games there was a very positive aspect. Players started to reach the last level of the game. Until July, there were played a total of 11796 games, a number that is, in fact, higher than the one from the previous edition. geo@NET’s 2010 competition took place in April 28th in the University of Aveiro. In this competition 186 games were played, being 372 the number of students that played the game.

These students came from 20 Portuguese schools.

Similarly to what had already happened in the training games, in the competition all levels had a number of correct answers equal or higher than 50%.

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From all the students that participated in the competition, only fourteen teams reached level 8 (study of igneous rocks) and only two reached level 15 (space exploration). Of these, only one team correctly answered the final level and consequently won the game.

These results show that there are a small number of players reaching the middle of the game in the competition. This could be related to the fact that most players see competitions as a day of field trip and not as games where, if they succeed, they can win prizes. Another factor already mentioned is the small screen that, particularly in Geosciences, affects the dimensions of the pictures and its observation by the players. Finally, Geosciences curricula could also help to explain these results.

At this point it was made a new TDgeo to establish more accurately the difficulty level of the QGMs. Like TDgeo 2009, when students enter the game, they immediately see all the questions and can answer by the order they want. Furthermore, they have a third option “Don’t answer” (NR).

Despite geo@NET is assigned to the third cycle of basic instruction, TDgeo was also open to the students of the secondary instruction (10th, 11th and 12th grades). In the total TDgeo was played by 263 students. Of these, 175 were played by students of the third cycle and 88 were played by students of the secondary instruction.

The results from TDgeo were analysed according to the grade of education and the QGM. The correspondence to the level was not made, once there are new QGMs that, in the present, are not included in the game. This enables us to present results according to the levels of geo@NET. The inclusion of new QGMs in the TDgeo intended only to evaluate its difficulty level and adequacy to the players.

In the results from TDgeo performed by the students of the third cycle it’s very clear that all QGMs have high percentages of correct answers,

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which is evidence that the game is adjusted to its public.

In TDgeo7_8_9, the QGMs with higher number of wrong answers are the ones corresponding to the study of “Minerals in everyday life” (currently at level 15), “Secondary volcanism”, “Areas of intense volcanic activity” and “Intensity and Magnitude of earthquakes”. These last three QGMs are all new to players, which can explain the results.

On the other hand, the results also show that the QGM related to the study of minerals in everyday life is, in fact, difficult to the players. This QGM has a number of correct answers of only 49.33% and comparatively to the others QGMs, this one should, as it really is, be included at level 15.

The QGMs with higher numbers of correct answers are QGMs that are included in the game since its beginning. Moreover, these QGMs, at present time, are included in levels 1, 2, 3 and 4. This seems to indicate that the familiarization with the game affects directly the rates of correct answers. Thus, the position that these QGMs occupy in geo@NET seems to be the right one.

Finally we point out that all QGMs, except the one already mentioned, have a number of right answers higher than 50%, being the QGM related to the study of Earth’s internal layers the one with the higher number of correct answers, 76.88%.

In light of these results, the only change that will be performed will be the inclusion of new QGMs in the game. Also, these new QGMs will be included in the final levels of geo@NET, respecting the curriculum guidelines for this cycle of instruction.

Respectively to the results of TDgeo performed by the students of secondary education (TDgeo10_11_12), is noteworthy that all QGMs have a percentage of right answers higher than 60%.

The QGMs with higher number of wrong answers are the ones related to the study of “Secondary volcanism”, “Sedimentary rocks” and “Igneous rocks”. The first of these QGMs is new,

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what could help explain these results. However, the others QGMs are included in the game since its beginning. Since only 88 games were played, it’s not possible to reach to conclusions more accurate, except that these subjects were studied by the players more than three years ago and they don’t remember these subjects. Remember that the QGMs related to the study of the rocks are now at levels 8, 9 and 10 and anyone can play the game, regardless of their degree of education.

On the other hand, the QGMs with the higher number of correct answers are the ones related to the study of “Life and planet Earth”, “Earth’s subsystems” and “Earth’s internal layers”. These QGMs are included in levels 1, 3 and 4. These subjects are studied in the beginning of 10th grade which can help explain the results obtained. On the other hand, these results seem to agree with the possibility that the familiarization of the players with the game can contribute to the increase in the success of the players in the game.

The results from TDgeo show that besides the game was originally only assigned to the students from 7th, 8th and 9th grades it also can be assigned to higher degrees of education. However, in higher degrees of education some QGMs must be improved and appropriated to the knowledge of the players.

Bering this in mind, in 2011 we expect that the number of games will continue to increase both in the training games and in the competition. So far, from October to January there were played 2318 games.

The results from these two editions seem to indicate that time can influence the performance of players in the game. So we are now keeping the game equal in the first levels and we intend to introduce new QGMs. However, these will be included in the final levels of the game, to allow players to overcome the levels that they already know and only then start playing the new levels.

We expect that in this way they will be more motivated to play and try to reach the end of the game.

In general the results show that this game can be extended to other degrees of education, including to the university, especially in courses with high numbers of students. The fact that the PEA provides immediately the results for the teacher is the main advantage of this type of games.

II.3 geo@NET: An Experience with University Students In December 2010 was also performed an experiment with university 1st cycle students that were following the signature “Geological Resources” (3rd year of graduation in Biology/Geology).

These students have had previously the signatures of “General Geology”, “Mineralogy” and “Petrology”.

Given their background in Geosciences, we expected that it would be easy for them to answer all the questions. They played exactly the same game as the students of 3rd cycle of Portuguese Basic Instruction, but with a difference: when they started to play, they could automatically see all the questions. In this experiment all QGMs had a percentage of right answers equal or higher than 50%. However, when the questions involved some knowledge of Geography, they had a great difficulty to find the correct answer. At the same time, they found that the propositions had a lot of text.

The results obtained with this experience show that even in a university course that includes a significant component of Geosciences, students don’t give the necessary attention to this area, probably because they don’t understand their importance. At the same time, we can conclude from these results that, in the Portuguese Educational System, there is a general problem – the lack of inter-disciplinarity between subjects that

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are intimately related. Geography and Geosciences is only an example of many.

geo@NET’s Problems and Difficulties One of the criticisms that are made to this type of initiatives is the introduction of games in the classroom. Many teachers, and parents also, still think that if the students are playing, they are not studying nor learning. However, games of the type presented here don’t intend to substitute the teacher, but give them new materials that are more familiar to the students and that, as a consequence, can be more motivating for their study. On the other hand, nowadays we can’t expect that students get home and study only by their books. So, at the same time that they are doing something that they enjoy a lot, playing games in the computer, they are also learning and studying.

In games like geo@NET there is a danger that students enter a cycle of mechanization, trying to obtain the higher scores and not concentrating in the contents of the game. This happens when the same QGMs are used in the training games and in the competitions year after year. On the other hand, there are some propositions that use the negative (is not, doesn’t indicate…) as an attempt to increase the randomness of the QGMs. For many students these formulations have a very high degree of difficulty.

These QGMs are formulated in a way that we can only make questions of the True/False type which, in some cases, is very limitative. For example, this type of questions doesn’t allow drawing conclusions about student’s writing skills and their reasoning. However, this type of questions has the advantage that players can accede to the games from all scientific areas and the questions are from the same type in all of them. Thus it’s not necessary that the students learn new rules each time they enter a different game.

In the particular case of Geosciences it’s difficult to introduce pictures with several details

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(e.g. maps and photos) that can fit in the reduced area dedicated to them by the software. This is a problem that can affect negatively some QGMs, once Geosciences has strong visual and spatial components. Besides that, the small screen of some computers can also affect the picture that players are seeing when they play the game.

In order to visualize the games players must install plug-ins (MathPlayer and SVG viewer), what is a difficult task to some of them.

Although we experienced a lot of difficulties with the development of geo@NET, as we mentioned here, the high number of daily accesses to geo@NET webpage indicates these games are used by a great number of students and teachers in their activities. Besides that, the number of students that come to the competitions, from all over the country, has increased. So, we can consider that this game is a success and can really contribute to improve the knowledge of Geosciences, a scientific area that has been under valuated by Portuguese curricula.

The results of the first two years demonstrate a high level of student’s motivation relatively to geo@NET. However, there are a great number of students that cannot overcome the initial levels of the game. During the development of the project, we will try to define if the players lose because the game is difficult or if there is another cause.

Solutions and Recommendations The games of the type that was here presented are not only dedicated to entertain the player. We expect that at the same time students are playing they are studying and, in some cases, learning new things. Sometimes they don’t even realize they are learning.

Trying to overcome the problem of mechanization is possible to elaborate new QGMs. As a consequence, every year the games will have different questions and players are confronted with new propositions and, even, new contents

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from the curriculum. Besides that, instead of using the negative form it’s possible to include in the QGMs pictures that affect the validation of the propositions and, in other cases, make a QGM more embracing. In the particular case of geo@NET new QGMs are constantly being elaborated and the use of the negative form has been significantly reduced.

Instead of using questions of only true/false type is now in study the introduction of different types of QGMs that allow, for example, that players write words and/or select propositions from a group.

Once there are very high numbers of games ending at the initial levels, it’s possible to make games in which players automatically see all the questions, like it happens in TDgeo. However, we believe this is a possibility in which the very spirit of the competition (overcome levels of a game) will be lost.

It would be a very positive aspect the introduction of pictures that allow the player to zoom in and visualize the details. This is a very important factor to keep in mind in Geosciences. Finally, the size of the screen can also be overcome with the introduction of zoom.

At the PEA are also available links where users can accede and install the plug-ins. There is also an area denominate “Help” where are available all the instructions for this installation.

PmatE AND geo@NET FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS Given the popularity of PmatE’s games and competitions in Portugal (thousands of students participate each year in the competitions), it is now possible to evolve to another type of games, organised not by specific scientific areas, but transversal to several related areas. For example, the same competition could perfectly include scientific areas such as geography, biology, geology,

physics and chemistry. This new type of competition is now under study and we think it could contribute to the increase of player’s scientific literacy and to prepare them to face the problems of modern society.

PmatE’s contents, on the other hand, are undergoing transformations both in the technologies applied and in the form in which they are presented to its public.

Once there are numerous operating systems and browsers, PmatE intends to make available Web tools that are accessible and easy to install regardless of the support that is used. Nowadays, the main browsers and operating systems allow the access to Flash contents, what facilitates the installation process. In this way it decreases the need to install traditional plug-ins such MathPlayer and SVG Viewer.

Relatively to the presentation we can expect accomplishments of QGMs with a variable number of answers, not only four, and with several types of input: combobox, free text, and dropdownlist, among others. This modification will allow more interactivity between the player and the content presented. We expect that in the future we will be able to make games with all these types of QGMs. Recently, PmatE has been focusing on delivering contents that can also be accessible in mobile platforms. For this we can count on an Adobe AIR application which presents several advantages over the Adobe Flash. These advantages include the possible blocking of all the keys or combination of keys, for instance F5 and CTRL+P, which made possible the activation of other features without interest during a game. It’s also possible to forbid access to other applications, keeping the AIR application maximized and avoiding the inappropriate use of external applications as calculators and WebPages. On the other hand it allows acceleration by GPU and, as a consequence, the contents are displayed faster. The installation of such tolls is unique and the updates are transparent.

It also allows us to check when there is no web

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connection, being able to only make submissions of applications when there is such connection, minimizing the presentation of errors. Finally, it allows faster and lighter access to the contents.

In the next competitions it will be available a game using this technology, the competition diz3, assigned to the students from the 3rd and 4th grades of Portuguese basic education.

In witch concerns geo@NET, we intend to improve the existent QGMs and to extend them to all the cycles of Portuguese Educational System. As the experience with university students showed, the new QGMs must be more generalist, involving not only Geosciences, but also other scientific areas that are related to, or that are necessary to a more complete understanding of Geosciences (Chemistry and Physics, Geography, Environmental Studies).

As a result of the university geo@Net experience, we will propose to the university students that are following the signature of “General Geology” (1st year of 1st cycle for the courses of Biology-Geology, Biology, Engineering Geology, Civil Engineering, Ocean Sciences, MeteorologyOceanography-Geophysics) to play geo@NET in the original form, by levels. We expect with this proposal to improve significantly the rate of success in this signature.

CONCLUSION Despite of geo@NET is based on the 3rd cycle Geology curriculum, we have seen that most of the students, from this cycle of education, don’t reach the highest levels of the game.

If we compare the two editions of geo@NET, we can see that there was an increase in the number of games played in the training games and in the final competition. Moreover, in 2010 all levels have a number of correct answers equal or higher than 50%. There have also been an increasing number of schools and teachers that encourage

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their students to play this game and to compete at the University. We consider this experience very positive due to the total number of games played in short periods of time. Furthermore, the percentage of games that ended in the initial levels declined substantially.

In geo@NET’s 2009 diagnostic test we verified that the number of correct answers can be, at some degree, related to the type of QGM. The QGM with the lowest number of incorrect answers contains only the identification of the general characteristics of each Earth subsystem (geosphere, biosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere) and players just have to assess the value (true/false) of the propositions.

This is the simplest type of QGM. On the other hand, in the QGMs with the higher number of incorrect answers, related to the study of minerals, igneous rocks, faults and folds, students had to make a relationship between propositions and a picture related to them. Therefore, the differences between the correct and incorrect answers in TDgeo 2009 could be assigned to the type of QGM, i.e., if it had or not a picture and if it was necessary to establish a relationship between affirmations and pictures. For some students, it can be difficult to visualize concepts that they are only used to read about in the school manuals.

Other students may find very difficult to make a correct relationship between the proposition and the picture related to it. In other cases, students can be used to see pictures that, scientifically, are not very correct.

The difficulties experienced by the students in the training games, TDgeo and final competitions can also be explained by other reasons.

First of all, we must analyse the Geology curricula in Portuguese Basic schools. Basic school comprises three cycles and nine grades.

In the 1st cycle (the initial four grades), Geology is not studied. The curriculum only includes the study of “The Earth in the Solar System”. In 2nd cycle (5th and 6th grades; 10 to 12/13 years old) the curriculum includes the subject “Natural Sci-

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ences”, dedicated mainly to ecological, biological and human health themes. In 30 items only 3 are dedicated to geological aspects (water, soils and rocks). So, in the end of the 2nd cycle, the knowledge of Geology is clearly insufficient.

In the 7th and 8th grades of 3rd cycle (three grades; 12/13 to 15/16 years old) the curriculum of “Natural Sciences” is dedicated mainly to Geology and comprises a large number of themes. As a consequence, the curriculum of Geology for the 7th and 8th grades is very extensive, especially if we consider that “Natural Sciences” only occupies 90 minutes per week. It is impossible, in a so short period of lectures, to give the appropriate attention to all the themes comprised in the curriculum. As a consequence, many students may be misleading to think they are not important.

At the same time, students don’t have the necessary knowledge to fully understand and learn all these themes, not only because they have not been sufficiently prepared in the 1st and 2nd cycles, but also because many of these themes imply the knowledge of physical and chemical concepts (for example, the force of gravity and the chemical elements and molecules), that are not part of the curriculum of “Physical and Chemical Sciences” in the 7th and 8th grades.

Another problem that contributes to the difficulties experienced by the students is the school books. There are several different school books of Geology. Each school can choose the book that its students will use. If we analyse them in detail, is very easy to see that the number of pictures and the amount of text explanations vary significantly in different books, and what is even more problematic is the scientific correction of the pictures and text explanations. Unfortunately, we can find a lot of scientific errors in many manuals. In Geosciences, pictures are essential to understand concepts that can be difficult for the students. This is the main reason why so many QGMs have a picture associated to them. In this way, we believe that this type of QGMs is more useful.

Finally, schools have the possibility to change the order of the themes that are included in the 3rd cycle curriculum, and many do that. They may begin by studying fossils and sedimentary rocks, or by the study of the internal structure of the Earth, or by another theme. It is evident for everyone that changing the order of the program can disrupt completely the natural sequence in which the different geological themes must be studied and create more difficulties to the study and learning by the students.

Despite of the problems and difficulties encountered by the students in geo@NET games, we consider these games a very successful experience. After the 2010 competitions took place, students continued playing, which demonstrates the interest that geo@NET arose between students and teachers. This seems to indicate that this kind of games can contribute to the increase of students’ motivation for the study of Earth Sciences. Moreover, the introduction of this type of computer software for the study and teaching of Geosciences can help students to reinforce their knowledge and to familiarize themselves with Information and Communication Technologies.

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Andrade, A. (2001). Questões-problemas do quotidiano: Contributos para uma abordagem global no currículo de geociências. in l. marques & j. praia (eds.), geociências nos currículos dos ensinos básico e secundário, (pp. 115-129). Aveiro, Portugal: Universidade de Aveiro.

Anjo, A. (2006). PmatE – Projecto matemática ensino: 17 anos na linha da frente. Linhas, 3, 56–57.

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Anjo, A., Bernardo, A., & Fernandes, R. (2003).

Model representation on the Internet . In Proceedings of Advances in Technology-Based Education: Toward a Knowledge-Based Society (Vol. III, pp. 1745–1749). Badajoz, Spain: Sociedad de la Information.

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Situação da educação em geociências em Portugal: Um confronto com a investigação didáctica . In Marques, L., & Praia, J. (Eds.), Geociências nos currículos dos ensinos básico e secundário (pp.

16–33). Aveiro, Portugal: Universidade de Aveiro.

Anjo, A., Pinto, J., & Oliveira, P. (2006). Pensas@Moz. Cadernos de Matemática. Retrieved December 23, 2007, from http://pam.pisharp.org/ handle/2052/124

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Annetta, L., Murray, M., Laird, S., Bohr, S., & Park, J. (2006). Serious games: Incorporating video games in the classroom. Educause Quarterly, 3, 16-22. Retrieved January 03, 2011, from http:// net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0633.pdf Brilha, J. (2004). A geologia, os geólogos e o manto da invisibilidade. Comunicação e Sociedade, 6, 257-265. Retrieved January 03, 2011, from http://www.dct.uminho.pt/docentes/pdfs/ jb_geol_manto.pdf Carneiro, C., Toledo, M., & Almeida, F. (2004).

Dez motivos para a inclusão de temas de geologia na educação básica. Revista Brasileira de Geociencias, 34, 553–560.

Gredler, M. (2004). Games and simulations and their relationship to learning. In D. H. JOhanssen (Ed.), Handbook of research on educational communications and technology. Retrieved January 3, 2011, from http://www.aect.org/edtech/21.pdf Isidro, R., Fernandes, R., Bernardo, A., Anjo, A., Vieira, J., & Pinto, J. (2003). Equamat2003: Descrição da infra-estrutura do sistema de informação. In Proceedings of CLME’: 2003: 3º Congresso Luso-Moçambicano de Engenharia Engenharia e inovação para o desenvolvimento: Vol. I (pp. 199–211). Maputo, Moçambique.

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Moursund, D. G. (2006). Introduction to using games in education: A guide for teachers and parents. Retrieved April 28, 2011, from http://uoregon.edu/~moursund/Books/Games/games.html Peixoto, E. (2009). Modelos geradores de questões no âmbito da geociências. Unpublished Master’s dissertation, University of Aveiro, Aveiro.

Peixoto, E., & Martins, M. (2010a). geo@NET: Um jogo para aprender geologia. Livro de Resumos – Conferência AFI (aprendizagem em ambiente formal e informal) / XI Encontro de Professores, Universidade de Aveiro, (pp. 47-50).

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Peixoto, E., Martins, M., & Azevedo, M. (2009). geo@NET: Learning geology with a game. Paper presented at The Seventh Open Classroom Conference – The European School 2.0. Incubating Creativity and the Capacity for Innovation: Open Content, Social Networking Tools and Creative Learning for All, Porto.

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ADDITIONAL READING Abt, C. (1987). Serious games. University Press of America.

Anjo, A., Oliveira, M., & Pinto, J. (2006). TDmat 9, 12 – A diagnostic test in Mathematics for 9th and 12th grades. Proceedings of International Conference in Mathematics Science and Science Education.

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Putting Portuguese geosciences on the Web. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Technologies in Science Education (pp. 207-212).

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Carneiro, C., & Barbosa, R. (2005). Projeto Geo-Escola: Disseminação de Conteúdos de Geociências por Meio do Computador para Docentes de Ciências e Geografia no Nível Fundamental em Jundiaí-Atibaia, SP. Revista do Instituto de Geociências, 3, 71–82.

Carneiro, C., Barbosa, R., & Piranha, J. (2007).

Bases teóricas do projeto Geo-Escola: Uso de computador para ensino de Geociências. Revista Brasileira de Geociencias, 37(1), 90–99.

Carneiro, C., & Lopes, O. (2007). Jogos como instrumentos facilitadores do ensino de Geociências: O jogo sobre “Ciclo das Rochas”. I Simpósio de Pesquisa em Ensino e História de Ciências da Terra/III Simpósio Nacional sobre Ensino de Geologia no Brasil, (pp. 111-117).

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Carvalho, A. (2008). Manual de Ferramentas da Web 2.0 para Professores. Ministério da Educação.

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Lopes, O., & Carneiro, C. (2009). O jogo “Ciclo das Rochas” para ensino de Geociências. Revista Brasileira de Geociencias, 39(1), 30–41.

Martin, M., & Shen, Y. (2010). Differentiating between serious games and computer aided instruction. Retrieved January 10, 2011, from http:// www.vmasc.odu.edu/downloads/Capstone_Papers/General_Science/Martin.pdf Michael, D., & Chen, S. (2005). Serious games: Games that educate, train and inform. Muska & Lipman/Premier.

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Implementação do PmatE numa escola. I Bienal de Matemática e Português. Retrieved December 23, 2007, from http://www.pensas.ac.mz:8081/conferencias/bienal/images/ArtigosBienal/025.pdf Pereira, J. (2009). Modelo gerador de questões: Uma nova proposta. Unpublished Master’s dissertation, University of Aveiro, Aveiro.

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Pinto, J., Oliveira, M., Anjo, A., Pais, S., Isidro, R., & Silva, M. (2007). TDmat – Mathematics diagnosis assessment test for engineering sciences students. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 38(3).

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Serious games – An overview. School of Humanities and Informatics, University of Skövde, Sweden. Retrieved January 03, 2011, from http://www. his.se/PageFiles/10481/HS-IKI-TR-07-001.pdf Tarouco, L., Roland, L., Fabre, M., & Konrath, M. (2004). Jogos educacionais. Novas Tecnologias na Educação, 2(1). Retrieved January 3, 2011, from http://www.cinted.ufrgs.br/ciclo3/af/30jogoseducacionais.pdf Vieira, J., Carvalho, M., & Oliveira, M. (2004).

Modelo gerador de questões (pp. 105–113). Conferência IADIS Ibero-Americana WWW/Internet.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Basic Portuguese Education School: Constituted by 3 cycles of study (1st cycle - Primary school, 2nd cycle and 3rd cycle) in a total of 9 years.

Geosciences in Portuguese Education System: This scientific area has a very small importance in the Portuguese Educational curricula. Is only mandatory in the 7rd and part of the 8th grades of 3rd cycle of Basic Portuguese Education System.

ICT: Integration of new technologies in the classroom.

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LRM: Language of representation of the QGMs which allows that several people can program and/or change the programming already made.

PEA: Platform of assisted learning in which students and teachers can play several games organized by scientific area. At the PEA teachers can confer their students’ results obtained over time and adequate their teaching methods.

Question Generator Models (QGM): A type of software that allows the elaboration of games

by levels, in which each level has 4 propositions to evaluate (true/false).

Secondary Portuguese School: Follows the Basic Portuguese Education and it’s constituted by 3 years.

Serious games: Games whose main purpose is to instruct its players relatively to a certain theme.

TDgeo: Diagnostic test which purpose is to establish the difficulty level of the QGMs.

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