Teaching science through games
- 2. Toys and games are synonymous with PLAY. Almost everyone likes to play and such a desire continues throughout an individuals life. Children's play objects were seen as toys,: but toys were not associated with adult play activities. For an example, board games, which might be played by both, tended to be seen as toys if used for children's play, but as games if adults played.
- 3. Play is also seen as a means of working off aggression; as a means of learning basic skills of survival(as is also observable in the animal kingdom), as well as the commonly accepted means of relaxation. By introducing them to science and technology through familiar and enjoyable experiences their appetites may be whetted to continue their learning via out-of-school education programmes.
- 4. • 'Traditional games and play have the potential for meaningful science education and they must be harnessed.‘ computer games have become a major software component. It is argued that children rapidly learn how to operate the computer through exposure to games since they are motivated to do so. In stimulating the child through computer games we may see the benefit in the classroom and laboratory when the youngsters progress to learning science
- 5. According to (Harlen,1983) in his book, “Suffice to say that the progressive use of toys and games of increasing difficulty can be very useful, not only in introducing new topics, or integrating the curriculum in terms of the relevance of one topic to another, but also in developing some of the process skills referred to in conjunction with defined concepts”
- 6. 85% of children say they play computer games outside of lessons (at home) at least once every couple of weeks. Boys tend to be the most regular players, with 70% of male students saying that they play every day, compared to only 41% female students. An average of 89% of students say that they would like to use computer games in the classroom; 89% of these think it would make lessons more interesting. Younger students were most likely to want to use computer games in school.
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