For my capstone project, I want to make a game to help Davis 4th graders have fun while learning about history. I interviewed two 4th graders, Abigail and Eleanor, who go to a private school in the Bay Area to learn more about 4th grade education.
To my surprise, I found that the majority of their 4th grade cirriculum is still workbook-based. The only online tools their school uses are Scratch for their coding class, and Montessori jobs, an learning software that the students works on after they are done with classroom activities. In the classroom, their teachers utilize the whiteboards to give lectures and explain concepts, and the students take notes in their notebooks. For homework, they are assigned pages from their workbooks. I wanted to know if they preferred this method of teaching, and both Abby and Eleanor said that it was because the teacher explains the concept to them clearly.
When I asked how they studied the material, both 4th graders said they brought their textbooks home to reread and review the content to prepare for tests. They said that the teachers didn't provide them with extra mateiral or resources to study with besides reassigning their textbook readings as review. Eleanor told me that they didn't make additional study materials themselves because they had a lot of other things to do already, like extracirriculars.
I also asked the fourth graders what they did in their free time, and both of them said they played games. I then asked what games they liked to play, and both of them responded with Cops and Robbers, a common game kids play during recess. Abby added Monopoly, Guess Who, and foosball, while Eleanor listed Monkey Mart, tag, and Flappy Bird. I wanted to know if they used any games to helped them learn, and Abby told me about Dictionary Four Square and a science speed vocabulary game they played in class, which Eleanor agreed that she enjoyed as well. When asked why they liked these games, both said it was because it was fun and because they play it with others. Based on these answers, it seems like Abby and Eleanor likes multiplayer games the most.