Marjeta Kolbl, Osnovna šola Brinje Grosuplje, Grosuplje
It is well known that younger students like to play and unknowingly they are capable of acquiring knowledge through play. Also older student love to play, but there are only few teachers who decide to teach or reinforce the knowledge through play. I, personally, really like using the didactic materials which I make by myself. For the last few years, I have put great emphasis on didactic games. Most of these games usually focus mainly on reinforcing the knowledge of a specific part of the lesson plan. For this school year I prepared the game called “Escape from the Biology classroom” for my students and it includes Biology knowledge from class 6 to 9 in Primary School. The game is similar to the “Treasure hunt” game. My game is intended for the 9th graders, but only 8th and 7th graders can play it, because while playing, they can use several webpages on the Internet. In a group there are maximum 5 students and by reading specific hints they are trying to find a solution from one exercise into another. Due to safety reasons, there is a teacher in the classroom, but his role is only to supervise and not to moderate the game. The mentor is not in the room, but he is “on alert”. This lesson is carried out after regular lessons finish, so that the students are not under time pressure. While playing, the students have to make a photo of the password and send it to the mentor. They also have to watch a recording with the password and another recording on the old-fashioned media – the VCR (video cassette recorder). The students can use the help of the Internet anytime during the game. They have one chance of using the help by writing an e-mail or making a phone call to the mentor. When there are more groups playing this game, some passwords can be changed or the students can be motivated by offering them a reward, this all with a reason that there would be no exchanging of solutions between the groups. Because I like playing, I know that a game is something that takes the students into the knowledge without them being aware of it. Students with lower knowledge and lower abilities are always motivated for games and for them the game can be adapted by providing easier hints or more hints. Talking from my personal experience, students are much more motivated for the lessons if taught this way, but it is true that for the teacher preparation of these games takes quite some time and energy.
