Children Designing Games Learning Environmental Science: Children?s Experiences in Designing, Programming, Learning, and Social Interaction

Among educational researchers and practitioners, there is a growing interest in employing computer games for pedagogical purposes. The purposes of Children Designing Games were to investigate how designing computer games affected the development of students? environmental knowledge, programming knowledge, environmental awareness and interest in computers. It also explored the nature of the artifacts developed and the types of knowledge represented therein. Children Designing Games, thus, presents the project that integrated a technology education class and a science class where 5th graders learned about environmental issues by designing games that involved environmental concepts. Children Designing Games explores how elementary school students design educational games for younger students to learn about environmental awareness and the types of learning processes and outcomes that result.