Let’s Play! Using Academic Games and Friendly Competition to Enhance Content Knowledge

My research question was to determine if using academic
games and friendly competitions during instruction
would increase the knowledge of 5th grade
students in science content. To test this hypothesis, I
created a pre/post assessment cycle design focusing
on the human body standard. Participants included
20 5th graders at Park Lakes Elementary. These students
took a pre test, were involved in 4 competition
based lessons and a posttest. The lessons included
competitions such as Speed Bag Drills, Kahoot, and
other team based games. At the conclusion of the lessons,
a posttest was issued. All 20 students earned
a passing score as compared to the low scores on
the pretest. Therefore, I was able to conclude that
academic games and friendly competitions during
instruction increased science content knowledge. I
intend to use this technique with future science units
to demonstrate improvement on the science portion
of the Florida Standardized Assessments.