BRAINIUM: The Board Game

How it relates to Child Development and Theorists

By Jayse Van Rooyen, Tanner Willgress, Aaron Lam, Hannah Perry

Amina Turton
EDPB 503
Child Development
October 24th, 2017
 Theorists and how their theories relate to our board game:

Our four categories can each be associated with a different theorist. Cranium is an
interactive game that needs different skills. These skills pertain to the following:

- Data Head - Active Learning - Lev Vygotsky

- Star Performer - The Art of Imitation - Albert Bandura
- Creative Cat - Curriculum needs to be purposeful and assist children to make
sense of the world - John Dewey (just like our new curriculum)
- Word Worm - Cognitive Development to be a social process - Jerome Bruner and
Language Acquisition Device - Noam Chomsky

We have chosen to apply most of the grade eight curriculum and in turn we were
able to incorporate five different educational theories into our game. Lev Vygotsky
directly related to our Category Data Head. Data Head is a product on active learning.
Vygotsky saw children as much of an important part as their education as the teachers.
He deemed their ability to interact with others was a developmental feature of being a
part of the learning process. Data Head asks questions to students to find out information
that they know. Questions such as true or false, multiple choice, and short answer give
the students different levels of difficulty and methods of answering. His four stages of
conceptual development apply specifically to Data Head as a category. These four stages
of conceptual development are; thinking in unordered heaps, thinking in complex stage,
thinking in concepts stage, and thinking in true concepts stage.

The art of imitation can be displayed through Star Performer which directly to
Albert Bandura. Albert Bandura is a behaviourist who believes that learning is gradual
and continuous. Banduras beliefs are based on the imitation of behaviours of children.
This is seen throughout the Star Performer category. As children would imitate their
parents and peers, students will imitate other people in this category. Students will have
to act out historical figures or other educational characters to show their learning. In this
way, students are learning and showing their learning through imitation, which reflects
Banduras imitation theory. This category and Banduras theory suggests that children
learn about their society, community, and social context through imitation; just like Star
Performer.

We wanted our board game to be a curricular recap for grade 8 students. We could
use this game for specific units, subjects, and prep for tests. Although we were not able to
prepare 1000s of questions for our class to answer, this board could be adapted and
further developed with other questions. This new spin on the BC curriculum plan has
allowed teachers to be much more open ended with the content students are learning.
Just like John Dewey, we used Creative Cat as an outlet for children to use drawing and
sculpting to make sense of the world around them. Dewey believed that students
education should be child-centred. He wanted the childs experience to be active and
interactive, therefore, their education involves the childs social world and the
community. Creative Cat lets students work in pairs, work alone (drawing by themselves
and using their own creative outlet), and cooperating with their peers and adults.

There is a direct relationship between language and thought. Both Bruner and
Chomsky relate their theories to language and how the child is born with it (Chomsky)
and how they learn by discovery learning (Bruner), where the childs surroundings
provides answers and the child makes the connections. Word Worm is directly correlated
to how Bruner and Chomsky relate child development and language. Such topics as;
spelling, solving puzzles, and descrambling words allow students to process information.
Students are able to use the information that they have within them instinctively. Then
process information further. This is like information being processed through a
computer. Information is going through the senses, processed, and then memory skills
being used to allow the mind to memorize material or lose it. Word Worm is a perfect
category for students to use skills they already know and memorize others.

Winning and Losing:

There is a culture of winning in western society that is taught to us through

mediums such as school, popular culture, and sports. It reinforces the thinking that
abstract ideas such as effort level, or the process taken towards completing an
assignment, basically anything that cannot be calculated by objective outcome measures
doesnt count. If you arent consistently one of the very best, in the top few percentile,
then you should basically give up because whatever you do wont matter. This ideology is
extremely dangerous because it ostracizes students that may be intelligent and capable,
where testing via the traditional method may not be the best medium for them to
demonstrate their knowledge. It further pushes away students in the middle of the pack
who may be able to succeed with just a little bit of help, but lack the self-esteem or
confidence to ask for help since they have internalized the idea that if they arent
winning, they are losing. It is time for us to rethink the binary system we have, hopefully
creating an environment that will allow children of all skill levels and talent to succeed
based on their individual need.
With our modified game of cranium, we give the players several different methods
of catching up and staying on par with other players. There is a fast track, where there
are less questions, and the longer track, where there are more questions. With each step
that you take, you can also choose from a bank of questions that are not only
differentiated in the knowledge it tests, but in the medium in which the testing is done.
That way, it accounts for a wide variety of skill and personality types, hopefully
encompassing most of the student population.

Game Play Strategies and how they relate to the BC curriculum:

 Putting children in pairs or small groups allows them to work together to find
answers and thus allows them to learn from each other or to teach each other. Working
as a team is incredibly important in our world today and is one part of the Core
Competencies of the BC Curriculum. Communication is a large part of how humans
function in society today and providing students with the ability to learn through game
play is essential to this.

You are also able to change the duration of game play, from a short trip around the
board to a longer trip around too. If you win at the purple circles on the board you can
take the short way around the board, if you lose you must keep trudging along the outside
squares. Decision making is a part of everyday life and allowing students to make
decisions in their learning is a part of the new BC curriculum also. Personalized learning
is an essential part of the curriculum and allows students to move at their own pace in
their education.

Adaptations

After playing the game with many different participants, we found some
adaptations that could help us improve it. To make cranium less complex, we could have
fewer different types of questions. The current version of the game has four categories,
with a few different types of question in each category (ie: multiple choice, true or false,
and single answer questions within the data head category). To simplify this we could
only have one type of question in each category. This adaptation would make the game
more accessible to different student abilities, as well as simplify the instructions.
The participants felt as though there were a few operational changes we could
make, such as; non-mechanical pencils because they broke to easily, making better odds
for rolling, and making some colours more dominant on the board. As the participants
played around the board they did and didnt like the gap that was created between teams,
although it can be quickly bridged, the players thought that it could be a more level
playing field. We could achieve this in our game by making different difficulty of
questions.
Players felt that we could have had the subjects the questions were covering listed
in the categories. Therefore, students would know if they were getting a french question,
history, healthy living, etc This would allow students to focus on areas they want to
improve or areas they want to avoid depending on how they want to play the game.
Also, the fact that the game contained a slow track and a fast track bothered some
participants. Only having one potential track could make the game seem more fair to the
players. Another aspect that some participants had troubles with was the fact that the die
correlated with a colour for the player to move their game piece to. Having a coloured die
could have made this easier for the players. Furthermore, having one theme to base the
questions on could have improved the game. This would have allowed the questions to be
more cohesive and similar in difficulty.
 Lastly, this game has the ability to vary in difficulty for different classes or grade
levels. Changing the questions is a simple way to alter the games difficulty. However, we
could also vary the amount of time given for each question. We could lengthen or shorten
the allowable time to make the game easier or harder respectively. Overall, these
adaptations could help to change and improve the learning experience of our game.


RULES: Cranium for the Grade 8 curriculum:

Categories:

STAR PERFORMER = GREEN

- In this category you will act out the clue; such as charades,
copying a famous person, or humming a song.

CLOODLE = BLUE
- In this category you will draw or sculpt the clue; this is much
like pictionary and sculpting from play-doh.

WORD WORM = YELLOW

- In this category you will solve word puzzles, spell words, use
clues to discover answers, and decipher answers from english to
french.

DATA HEAD = ORANGE/RED

- In this category you will answer general knowledge trivia,
including multiple choice, true or false questions and
single-answer questions.

HOW THE DIE WORKS: Each number on the die represents a colour.
1=PURPLE (WILD)
2=ORANGE
3= BLUE
4= GREEN
5= YELLOW
6= PURPLE (WILD)


WHY IS THERE A PINK CROWN ON SOME CARDS?
This is a CLUB CRANIUM. All teams must play this club cranium and
compete against each other. Whoever gets the questions right gets a
bonus role. This does not affect the turn of whatever team had pulled
the card. This is simply a bonus role. If you lost the club cranium
continue on your merry way. If you win take a bonus role!!

THE PURPOSE: of the game is to be the first to move around the entire
board and into the Cranium Central (BIG BRAIN). Then, to win, you
must successfully complete one final activity - that the opposing team
will choose from one of the categories.

START THE GAME: You must have a minimum of four people and play
the game in teams of two. Each team will choose a game piece and
place it on the starting large purple circle. On this space, each team
can choose any colour/category to start with. The team that has a
person with the next birthday gets to go first.

BEGINNING YOUR JOURNEY: You begin your turn by completing an

activity. Since you start on a purple square it is wild space. SO
CHOOSE WHATEVER CATEGORY YOU WOULD LIKE. As you go along
the game; the color of the space matches the four card spaces.

The team to the right will draw the card from the appropriate category
and read it to you. They will also set the timer for you when you are
ready using their cell phone - it is 1 minute per turn. You must
complete the activity before the time runs out in order to win your
turn.

If you successfully complete the activity you get to roll the die and
move to the next colour you have rolled - your turn ends there and you
will start on that colour next turn. If you roll purple move to the
nearest wild space. YOU CAN NOT PASS A PURPLE. You must stop at
the purple space, even if you rolled a colour that is past the wild space
on the board. Your turn is now over.

WHEN YOU WIN YOUR TURN: If you win your turn on a PURPLE space
that means you are on the fast track The fast track is the 4 large
circles. Congrats you can roll the die and wait at the coloured space.

WHEN YOU LOSE A TURN: If you lose your turn on a PURPLE space
you are on the slow track the slow track is the smaller squares that
have 8 to a track. If you do not successfully complete the activity, your
turn is over. You will stay on the same square and try again on your
next turn.

** There is no opportunity to get on the fast track once you are on the
slow track and vice versa.

TO WIN THE GAME:

You must move around the board and complete the categories. Make
sure to always stop at the purple spaces.

THE LAST STEP: Once you make it to the BIG BRAIN you must
complete a category the opposing team(s) pick for you!! If you win the
card. YOU WIN THE GAME!! If you lose the question/category then you
must wait your turn and try again.

THAT IS THE END OF THE GAME :)