Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 1

Measuring the Effectiveness of Video Games on Summer Learning Loss

Lee Ruhe

Bowling Green State University

Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 2

Abstract

Objective: Discover if educational video games had an effect on summer learning loss in

students. Methods: Students (n=26) attending a Putnam County Young Men’s Christian

Association (YMCA) participated in the study and were randomly assigned to the experimental

or control group. The experimental group students participated in playing educational video

games for one hour, 5 days a week, for 5 weeks. The control group participated in non-academic

play during the same time frame. A 30-question pre-achievement test was taken before the study

was conducted, and an identical achievement test was taken at the end of the study. The

difference between pre and post achievement tests were calculated and analyzed for summer

learning loss. Results: There was a significant decrease in achievement test differences in the

experimental group when compared to the control group. Conclusion: The students who played

educational video games have significantly less summer learning when compared to those did

not during the summer months; t(24)= -7.77, p< 0.0001, one-tailed.
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 3

Introduction

Comparisons of the lives of students between the school year and during the summer

months raise questions of “how is the best way to positively influence a child’s academic

development?” During the school year, children stay active in their academic development by

attending school and practicing their knowledge at home, while during the summer months,

children tend to remain at home relaxing. This creates a problem that teachers face year after

year where without on-going practice during the summer months, how are students able to retain

information long-term to prevent spending weeks re-teaching the following school year? This

summer learning loss phenomenon has been investigated and shown that summer vacation

breaks a learning rhythm which can lead to forgetting and ultimately require significant amount

of time to review old material (Cooper, Nye, Carlton, Lindsay, & Greathouse, 1996). Cooper et

al. (1996) determined that summer learning loss amounted to about one month of schooling lost.

Additional studies concluded that since reading is practiced both at home and in school while

mathematics and spelling are mostly practiced in formal school settings, this results in

arithmetic problem solving and writing achievements decreasing over the summer while

reaching achievement increases (Paechter, Luttenberger, Macher, Berding, Papousek, Ewiss, &

Fink 2015). Unfortunately, it seems no matter what strategy teachers implement, summer

learning loss continues to be an issue in all students unless practiced.

With students being at home for the majority of summer vacation, they are exposed to

countless forms of technology such as smartphones, tablets, computers, and video gaming

consoles. Video games have shown promise in areas of education as they promote 21st century

skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication, as well as subject specialties

like historical accuracies. There have been studies done already about incorporating modern
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 4

video games like Assassin's Creed in the history classroom. This specific study found that the

inclusion of Assassin's Creed in the classroom resulted in 96% of the students enjoyed playing

the game and found it engaging way to learn history (Kartsenti & Parent, 2020). In Kartsenti

and Parent’s study, a vast majority of students learned about events like the French Revolution

as well as necessary terminology all from playing Assassin's Creed. This finding has shown that

video games have the ability to go beyond just entertainment value, but also have the ability to

help students academically.

Seeing these issues arise year after year in the high school science classroom, more

research needs to be done in finding out which type of educational activities can help slow down

or prevent summer learning loss. As not only a science teacher, but also as a summer camp

counselor, the focus of the work was to be on those children who enrolled and partake in

summer camp activities. This idea was used as the focus for this research study, and the effect

that video games already have in the classroom served as the basis of the research question in

measuring the effectiveness of video games on summer learning loss. This research is important

because this issue is ongoing with no end in sight. As more research is done regarding this

issue, we will discover more ways to foster and support student learning outside the classroom

which is important for all educators as the new school year begins.

Literature Review

Introduction

Summer learning loss can result from removing students from a 9-month routine of

practicing learned content for the three summer months of June, July, and August. This ten-

week long summer vacation results in teachers having to spend several weeks reviewing content

just to get them ready for the current year’s content (Kerry & Davies, 1998). Instead, the
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 5

students who attend these schools that participate in summer vacation partake in using those

three months away from practicing content and instead spending time with friends and family,

relaxing, or even picking up hours at a job. However, there is one method that has been around

since the late 1950s which only recently have found promise in retaining learned content: video

games. These studies explore the effects of summer vacation on content knowledge as well as

how video games can combat this issue by addressing the digital skills video games can teach

players and also how video games are currently being used in the classroom as a new form of

practicing learned content.

Content Knowledge During Summer Vacation

For many years, plenty of research has been conducted to show summer learning loss

happening in students during a three-month summer vacation. Thirty-nine studies were reviewed

and found that one month’s worth of content learned in school is lost during this three-month

time, typically found in math and language arts skills (Cooper, Nye, Charlton, Lindsay, &

Greathouse, 1996). Additionally, this article found that skills like math and spelling, which

require students to consistently memorize and apply new skills, were subject to a greater loss

during the summer than other skills that were more conceptually based, like reading. The 2013

quantitative study “Using Curriculum-Based Measurement to Examine Summer Learning Loss”

was to investigate changes in reading of elementary students from the ending of school year and

the beginning of the next. The study consisted of 317 students pulled from a first to fourth grade

in a Georgia elementary school and measured using a curriculum-based measurement of oral

reading in the spring and in the fall. The students were asked to read aloud 3 at level passages,

each passage was timed for 1 minute, and the score is calculated as the number of words read

correctly in a minute. If the student omitted, substituted, or hesitated on words for more than 3
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 6

seconds, they were recorded as errors. However, if a student self-corrected their error within 3

seconds, the error was removed. This study concluded the average scores of students in second

and third were “significantly higher (in the spring) than the average scores in the fall across all

subgroups” (Sandberg Patton & Reschly, 2013).

Additional research by Meyer, Meissel, and McNaughton (2017) parallels Sandberg

Patton and Reschly’s findings. Their qualitative study measured second graders (n=82) from a

school in a medium-sized city in Germany. The instruments used for reading comprehension

was a questionnaire while writing achievement was assessed having students write 15 single

word and three sentences read aloud. Both forms of data collection showed a great reliability of

r=0.89 (Meyer, Meissel, & McNaughton, 2017). Achievement scores of reading and writing

were collected at four times (two times before summer vacation and two times after summer

vacation) and found that reading comprehension stalled over the summer and writing had

significantly declined (Meyer, Meissel, & McNaughton, 2017). As research is showing, summer

learning loss is a concern during the summer month, especially when students are not getting

support in practicing the content. Programs are currently being designed to combat this issue by

making these programs academically and curriculum driven. Additionally, research also shows

how summer learning loss initiatives are effective outside traditional schooling contexts.

Terzian, Moore, and Hamilton makes a point that these programs also need to be more

interactive, supportive, and engaging than traditional classroom models as it offers more freedom

and flexibility in how learning occurs (Travis, Gann, Crooke, & Jenkins, 2019). With this in

mind, incorporating video games into these programs offers this type of environment but also

academically supports the students into practicing learned skills.

Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 7

Video Games and Teachable Skills

What once was really just a common past time amongst kids and young adults has now

shown promise in helping develop 21st century skills, specifically the 4 C’s: Collaboration,

Communication, Creativity, and Critical Thinking (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2015).

Video games have become an area of research as a possibility to increase these skills in students

as they share similar characteristics with current successful learning environments – “they are

active, goal oriented, contextualized, adaptive, and feedback oriented” (Hovious & Van Eck,

2015). One particular qualitative study conducted by Trespalacios, Chamberlin, and Gallagher

(2011) during a summer program at a New Mexico State University Learning Games Lab

(Games Lab). This Games Lab has previously hosted research sessions which found that

students who went to this program showed improvement in communication and critical thinking

skills. Trespalacios, Chamberlin, and Gallagher’s study specifically focused on measuring

student collaboration skills while playing video games. This study consisted of seven different

groups of 8 to 13 middle school students (n=72) which were asked open-ended questions relating

to their preference about multiplayer and single player video game they have played for the

program. From their questions, they were able to find that 72% of middle school students

preferred multiplayer as “they [the students] like to work as a team to ‘survive’ in video games

and help each other” to reach the game’s overall goal (Trespalacios, Chamberlin, & Gallagher,

2011). These video games in the study promoted these students’ social and collaborative skills

as each student had different skill levels in video game play, so they all needed to work together

and teach each other tricks or strategies to overcome obstacles (Trespalacios, Chamberlin, &

Gallagher, 2011).
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 8

Creativity was studied under Ott and Pozzi (2012) by observing two third grade classes

(n=40 students) for three school years (third to fifth grade). Being skilled in creativity provides

the ability for students to adapt find innovated ways to solve potential problems, especially

useful for future employment. The purpose of Ott and Pozzi’s quantitative study was to see if

creativity can be fostered and enhanced by one of the 45 “mind video games,” to some extent.

These students were divided into groups of six, where each group took turns playing an hour of

these “mind video games” per week. During this time, direct observations were used to record

the students’ performance and behavior according to a “monitoring sheet,” as well as deciding of

the presence/absence of relevant creativity “indicators” (Ott & Pozzi, 2012). The findings

showed that 37 of the 45 games resulted in the video games meeting the creativity indicators laid

out in the study in at least 30% of the observation sheets collected. In conclusion, the authors

report that “the type of game at hand may influence the ability to evidence, trigger and foster the

students’ creative skills and attitudes” (Ott & Pozzi, 2012). Research supports that video games

have the ability to enhance 21st century skills in students and prepare them for the modern

world, the next step is finding a way to incorporate these games into the typical classroom.

Video Game Integration in Schools

In recent years, game-based learning has been slowly being incorporated into the

classroom by various means. Most times, these programs are used to review concepts covered,

such as Kahoot, Quizizz, and Quizlet live which students can run with their limited school

Chromebook. Additionally, basic video games, like Flash games (until January 2021) was used

to just enhance or test a single concept covered in class. But more recently, modern systems

have found their way into the classroom like virtual reality, Xbox, and PlayStation to run more

complex games like Minecraft, Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty, and Portal to not only enhance a
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 9

lesson, but also continue to build the students’ 21st century skills. These complex games require

their players to be “adaptable (‘thrive on change’) and resourceful (‘gather available resources

and experiment with them to find multiple ways of accomplishing a task’)” to encourage critical

thinking and reflective learning (Barr, 2017).

In a comparative case study by Kurt Squire (2005), he analyzed two cases in which the

computer game Civilization III was used for a world history class. When transitioned from

normal lecture style lesson to a clicking adventure game, the cases showed that students thought

Civilization III “was a ‘perfect’ way to way to learn history” as students now had an opportunity

to reply historical events or tackle hypothetical yet historical scenarios (Squire, 2005). Students

now have the opportunity to see how European settlements colonized America, or even play as a

Native American tribe and resist the colonization. During their play through, students learn new

vocabulary terms by reading in-game text but also through their own failure and improve their

strategy to successfully build their civilization. As one student in a case points out, “playing the

game forces you to learn about the material. It actually forces you to learn about other

civilizations in order to survive” (Squire, 2005). Learning more about a civilization allows

students to brainstorm new ways of solving a problem and implementing their solutions to then

analyze the results. “After going through these cycles of recursive play, students’ thinking

became more complex. Success and even survival in the game required deep thinking” (Squire,

2005).

Due to these modern video games finding their way into the classroom and making a

significant impact on learning, some video game publishers are designing their video games

specifically with a subject or topic in mind. Shell Games, a virtual reality video game company,

partnered with programs like the Institute of Education Sciences and the Small Business
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 10

Innovation Research program to create games like HoloLAB Champions as a way for students to

practice chemistry lab techniques through virtual reality (Shell Games, 2018). Additional video

games created with the intent of teaching students content information can be found in article

“Video Games in Education: Why They Should Be Used and How They Are Being Used”

(Annetta, 2008). In the game Immune Attack, players are tasked to interact with a human body’s

immune system to fight off invading pathogens; Food Force players are tasked to consult with a

team of scientists to distribute food to famine-affected countries to help recover; lastly, Quest

Atlantis assigns players with quests that require them to travel to locations to conduct

environmental test and research while developing plans to help the location prosper (Annetta,

2008). These video games create an immersive environment that allow students to develop an

understanding of a concept through inquiry as they are able to manipulate virtual objects and

“use logic, memory, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills” to solve any task laid before

them (Annetta, 2008).

A quantitative study conducted by Baig and Alotaibi (2020) was conducted to investigate

the effect of video games on mathematical performance. The authors sampled students enrolled

in fourth to sixth grade (n=789) and their teachers from six different schools in Riyadh City in

Saudi Arabia. From there, each school breaks up each grade into two groups, control and

experimental, by random assignment. Each grade group in their respective school was taught by

the same teacher in a traditional lecture style at the same time, followed by a short 4-point pretest

to serve as a comparison. After the pre-test was completed, the control group received

traditional style practice, like completing a short worksheet or textbook activity, while the

experimental group played a video game that aligned with the content taught. After nine

minutes, each group took another 4-point post-test to measure any differences in achievement
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 11

between both groups. The findings of this study showed “there were no statistically significant

differences between the groups in the pre-test” but “a positive effect from video games based on

the school curriculum on student's performance in Mathematics compared to traditional methods

alone” (Baig & Aotaibi, 2020). Not only this, additional findings indicated “students playing

video games are more alert and interactive in the classroom; in addition, they became more

excited to learn” (Baig & Aotaibi, 2020).

Summary

Video games have come a long way from being just a form of entertainment and escaping

the real world for a short amount of time. It is irrefutable that video games are designed to

immerse the player in an engaging environment and to give the player an objective to meet, but

little was understood about the possible benefits in development video games could offer,

especially with the targeted demographic being aimed towards the younger generation. Through

research, video games have been found to be designed containing components of the 21st

century skills that can be taught and develop for usage in the real world. Additionally, when

used in the classroom, video games have shown a positive impact either used alongside

traditional lessons or even used as a form of inquiry. Unfortunately, though video games show

benefits in the development of skills and content understanding, summer learning loss has been

found when a school partakes in a three-month summer vacation. Since there is a correlation

between video games and learning content, further research should be conducted to see if playing

video games during the summer months can help slow or prevent summer learning loss.

Project Details

When it comes to usage of the video games in the summer camp, the research study was

designed to measure summer learning loss. After the research was conducted, the video games
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 12

used for the experimental group were used in the creation of the project to implement video

games as resources in both the summer camp but also in the afterschool program at the Putnam

Country Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). The video game integration consisted of

computer-based educational video games and iPad educational apps that focus on continuing

student practice of learned knowledge from school as well as games targeting non-academic

skills and 21st Century skills. When designing this project for the class EDTL 6380, I had to

keep in mind the original goal of the afterschool program, to assist students with their homework

from school. In previous years, after the students have finished their homework, they would

have “free play” where they ran around, took naps, watched YouTube videos, or went to the gym

to play basketball. With this implementation of video games, the original goal of assisting

homework remains, however the allotted “free play” time will include the addition of activities

that incorporate educational value

The computer-based educational video games used come from the series of Jumpstart

and ClueFinders. In each of the video games, students were tasked to solve grade level problems

based around subjects they cover in school (Math, Science, History, English, Art, Music, etc…)

in the form of minigames. The completion of each minigame brings the player one step closer to

completing the main story for each game. After the completion of each game’s main story, the

students are able to take an Assessment Test which will test on the student’s level of expertise of

each subject. Additional computer-based games include Pajama Sam, Carmen Sandiego Series,

and Zoombinis are options for the students, where rather than focus on only academic

knowledge, students will additionally get practice with 21st Century skills like creativity and

problem solving. Along with the computers, iPads are also being included in the afterschool

program for both students and workers to use. iPads will have apps that will offer aid to the
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 13

students as well as practice on things they have learned in school. Some of these apps include

Khan Kids, Prodigy, Splash Learn, and Minecraft Education. Just like the computer-based video

games, these apps are designed to engage the learner in a game like setting, either solving

problems in minigame format or have them explore an environment and learning along the way.

Other apps downloaded on the iPad which will promote 21st century skills and other non-

traditional subjects include Cargo-Bot and Hopscotch that can introduce students to coding while

Carmen Sandiego Returns and the Oregon Trail allows students to practice their problem-

solving skills. A lot of these games and apps go beyond just one are it targets, such as Minecraft

Education not only can teach students about school content, but also can promote the 21st century

skill: creativity by having them build a structure assigned by a non-playable character (NPC).

The workers also get the chance to use the apps, but they will have apps designed to help

encourage academic play and reward positive behavior. Learning management system apps like

ClassDojo is currently being used by the summer camp to encourage positive behavior, but when

the afterschool program beings, the app is used to catalog the students’ academic progress. All

the project’s incorporated games and apps are geared to help the afterschool program students to

learn independently and get immediate feedback to not only become successful academically,

but also help them become prepared for the future as they move up in grades. As workers, they

monitor and foster their learning not only by helping them with homework but also encouraging

their behavior to strive academically. This project relates back to the research done comparing

the experimental group, which received computer-based educational video games, to a control

group, which received non-educational activities.

Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 14

Methodology

To what level of significance (tested at a 0.05 level) is summer learning loss affected in

students when playing educational video games compared to not within a summer camp? The

previously mentioned research question served as the basis behind the experimental research

study that took place at the Putnam County YMCA’s summer camp program in Ottawa, OH.

The purpose of this study is to discover if educational video games had an effect on summer

learning loss in students. It was hypothesized that the experimental group would have

significantly less summer learning loss compared to the control group when the students

participate in playing educational video games consistently during the summer months.

The participants that made up the sample of this study are 26 elementary students,

ranging in completed grades level from third to fifth and ages between eight to eleven. The

breakdown of students per grade is 7 third graders, 9 fourth graders, and 10 fifth graders. These

26 students consisted of 13 male and 13 female in various grade levels, which can be further

summarized in Appendix 1. The study randomly assigned the students by grade level into two

groups, the control group and experimental group, in an attempted order to have equal number of

students of the same academical grade level in each group (Appendix 2). When gathering

students from the population to partake in the study, a convenience sampling method was used

due to their convenience of availability to the researcher (Johnson & Christensen, 2016).

However, the enrollment in the summer camp introduces a diverse group of students from all

over the county, as the summer camp is offered to any Putnam County students enrolled in one

of seven schools between kindergarten to fifth grade. The students in this study were chosen

because they were currently enrolled in the summer camp program and the researcher was
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 15

currently employed as a camp counselor of the summer camp. After sampling the students, they

were randomly assigned and separated into two groups prior to the research taking place.

The design of this research study followed a quantitative research design. Additionally,

since the study is taking place at the Putnam County YMCA, this study is also a field experiment

as the experimental study is being conducted within the real-life setting (Johnson & Christensen,

2016). The research also follows the pretest-posttest control group design, as once separated, all

the students took a pre achievement test to serve as the starting point before the study and can be

used for comparison. The days following the pretest, the experimental group received their

treatment of playing educational video games for the remainder of the study, while the control

group did not receive any educational activity during the same length of time. Following the

ending of the study, each group of students took the same post achievement test, which was

identical to the pretest. Once both tests were completed, comparisons between the pre and

posttest showed if there is any significance between the two scores of the two tests.

This quantitative research study had an identifiable independent and dependent variable.

The dependent variable for this study was the differences in achievement test scores. The

achievement test was composed up of 30 released items from the Ohio Spring 2019 Air Test.

These 30 questions were either of multiple choice or fill-in style questions of either the Math and

Language Arts subjects. The pretest was administered June 14, 2021 while the posttest was

administered July 16, 2021. The independent variable for the research study was the playing of

the JumpStart or ClueFinders video game. The implementation of this independent variable

took place for 5 days a week for 5 weeks. The control group were given a non-educational

activity to play during the same timeframe as the experimental group. The entirety of this
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 16

research study was incorporated to fit into the students’ normal summer camp schedule and took

place in two separate locations at the Putnam County YMCA.

Results and Discussion

The pre-achievement test and post-achievement test results from the study were collected,

recorded, and plotted for all students in the study under the correct group they were in. The

results of the students in the control groups can be found under Appendix 3, while the results of

the students in the experimental group can be found under Appendix 4. All the students’

achievement score differences in the control group show a loss in knowledge, as indicated with a

negative difference achievement score. It is noted that students in both groups did show some

signs of summer learning loss, however, in the experimental group did some students show either

no knowledge loss or even knowledge gained from the playing the educational video games. In

the experimental group, two students (15.38%) showed no learning loss as indicated with a zero-

score difference, while three students (23.08%) showed an increase in knowledge as indicated

with a positive score difference. The software StatCruch was used to create the summary

statistics for the achievement test score differences of each group. The summary statistic for the

control group (M= -7.38, SD= 2.87, n= 13) can be found in Appendix 5 and the experimental

group (M= -1.08, SD= 1.98, n= 13) can be found in Appendix 6. Using a t-test of independent

samples (Appendix 7), the summary statistic tested at the 0.05 level was produced comparing the

mean score differences of the two groups. The t-test results were analyzed and determined the

test statistic (t= -7.77) and the level of significance (p< 0.0001) when the score differences of the

students who participated in playing video games when compared to those students who

participated in non-academic activities.

Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 17

This research study did have some limitations, both internal and external. An internal

limitation present in this study was the short time frame, where students may not have had

enough time to really experience summer learning loss. If the same study is conducted in the

future, the length of the study should be extended from 5 weeks to the entire summer camp

program. This would allow to test if the students really experience the loss of one-month worth

of knowledge that Cooper, et al. (2016) pointed out. Another external limitation was the

Achievement Test themselves being only limited to Mathematics and Language Arts. Since the

questions were being pulled from the Ohio Air Tests, this limits the tested area. The Ohio Air

Tests only assess student knowledge mainly only in those two subject areas, leaving areas like

Science and History out. This study has gotten a good picture of how educational video games

affected Mathematics and Language Arts skills, but there is no data on how the video games

affected Science and History. Future studies should incorporate both of these left out subjects to

get a better image of video games affect across all subjects in school. Another internal limitation

was the attendance of some of the participants. Due to the program being offered during the

summer months, some families schedule trips that can last a couple of days to a full week. This

could have significantly affected the data, as if the students were in the experimental group, this

left the students not engaged in playing the educational video game for a certain amount of time.

Preventing parents from pulling their child out of the study to allow them to travel as a family

was not possible, so increasing the time the study was conducted would be the best way to

combat this issue. The last internal limitation was the motivation of the students to play the

video games. Students sometimes experienced frustration with the video game in which delayed

their progress in the video game and hurt their motivation to continue. When frustration

occurred, students would typically become sluggish and refuse to continue either for a couple of
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 18

minutes to the entire hour session. In many instances this frustration was caused by the controls

of the game not registering or having them remember a concept they already forgot about. When

a student experienced the latter, another student at their table typically intervened and offered

help to guide them to solve the puzzle.

Conclusion

The question this research study was attempting to answer was: To what level of

significance (tested at a 0.05 level) is summer learning loss affected in students when playing

educational video games compared to not within a summer camp? After running the research

study and examining the results, it can be concluded that students who played educational video

games have significantly less summer learning when loss compared to those did not during the

summer months; t(24)= -7.77, p< 0.0001, one-tailed.

These results, indicating that content knowledge decreased less when the students played

educational video games, definitely support Cooper et al (1996) belief that the reason for

summer learning loss is due to the breaking in a learning rhythm. With the students playing the

video games, they are constantly practicing what they learned in school to move beat the

minigame and move to the next quest, and therefore are not entirely breaking the learning

rhythm. With the disguise of a video gaming layout and a story line instead of traditional

worksheets, students become fully engaged and look past the practicing portions. Though there

were times where students did show frustration in the video games, once the study was

concluded, many of the participants have expressed interest in continuing on playing the video

games. If fact, many of the students in both control group and the group not participating in the

study wanted to play the computer games. JumpStart and ClueFinders video games are early

2000s video games, around 20 years old by the time of this study. During the time of this study
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 19

being conducted, these kids have experienced games like Minecraft and Fortnite which contain

better graphics and more engaging gameplay. There are modern apps that really people

acknowledge having excellent educational potential like YouTube, Khan Academy, and Kahoot

as they can offer individualized lessons and also offer immediate feedback. Yet, these kids

found the entertainment value in 20-year-old video games and not only was able to slow down

summer learning loss, but in some cases stop and even improve their content knowledge.

Though this study aimed to answer the question regarding summer learning loss, another eye-

opening experience was realized; with a focus on modern apps and games being used in

education, the possible benefits that the classic video games can offer is forgotten. The

JumpStart and ClueFinders series are still being developed, improved on, and produced; the

classics have shown they are still valuable. Based on these results from the study, the continued

implementation of the video games in both the summer camp program and the afterschool

program will continue alongside the implementation of the iPads in order to continue to help

students perform better not only academically, but also become prepared for the future.
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 20

Appendix

Appendix 1: Breakdown of Participants by Grade level and based on Gender

Grade Level Male Female

Third Grade 3 4
Fourth Grade 4 5
Fifth Grade 6 4

Appendix 2: Breakdown of Participants by Grade level and based on Group Assigned

Grade Level Control Group Experimental Group

Third Grade 3 4
Fourth Grade 5 4
Fifth Grade 5 5

Appendix 3: Control Group Pre vs Post Test Scores

Student Pre-Achievement Post-Achievement Achievement Test

Test Test Difference
1 27 24 -3
2 25 18 -7
3 17 8 -9
4 21 17 -4
5 21 18 -3
6 18 11 -7
7 24 14 -10
8 18 8 -10
9 15 6 -9
10 22 11 -11
11 14 8 -6
12 24 13 -11
13 17 11 -6
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 21

Control Group Pre vs Post Test Score Comparision

30

25
Achievement Test Score

20

15

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Student

Pre-Achievement Test Post-Achievement Test

Appendix 4: Experimental Group Pre vs Post Test Scores

Student Pre-Achievement Post-Achievement Achievement Test

Test Test Difference
1 23 23 0
2 21 19 -2
3 17 14 -3
4 16 18 +2
5 25 24 -1
6 19 18 -1
7 21 18 -3
8 17 15 -2
9 14 15 +1
10 15 17 +2
11 22 18 -4
12 17 17 0
13 26 23 -3
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 22

Experimental Group Pre vs Post Test Score Comparision

30

25
Achievement Test Score

20

15

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Student

Pre-Achievement Test Post-Achievement Test

Appendix 5: Control Group Summary Statistic

Appendix 6: Experimental Group Summary Statistic

Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 23

Appendix 7: Comparison of Score Difference Means between Control and Experimental Groups
Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND SUMMER LEARNING LOSS 24

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