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SWIFT QUIZ:

AN EDUCATIONAL GAME DESIGN

By

Robert Kleszczynski

SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE:

Angelos Barmpoutis, Chair

Marko Suvajdzic, Member

A PROJECT IN LIEU OF THESIS PRESENTED TO THE COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

2016

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©2016 ROBERT KLESZCZYNSKI

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Dedicated to anybody that loves games.

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Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank Angelos Barmpoutis for helping to direct my ambitions in such a

way that I could tackle this project. Without him. I would have a much more difficult time

figuring out a suitable topic.

I thank Marko Suvajdzic for exposing me to the deeper mechanics of design, and

offering me feedback on an early prototype.

I thank Zared Scwhwartz for giving me no nonsense feedback on all the

iterations of this project.

I thank my mother, Maria Schiyer, for her endless support on my sometimes

tumultuous journey through life. I hope to one day return the favor for all of the

opportunities she has given me.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 4

Table of Contents 5

List of Figures & Tables 7

Abstract 9

1. Context 11

1.1 Introduction 11

1.2 Literature Review 13

1.3 Learning From Games 16

1.4 Mechanics for Motivational Learning 19

1.5 Existing Works 22

2. Proposal 25

2.1 Research Questions 25

2.2 Initial Proposal 25

2.3 Research Protocol 26

3. Design 28

3.1 Interaction Design 28

3.2 User Experience Design 37

3.3 Content Design 42

4. Development 43

4.1 Development Tools 43

4.2 Implementation Details 43

4.3 Back-End Development 47

4.4 Gameplay Development 51

5. Research Results 57

5.1 Data Summary 57

5.2 Demographic Analysis 58

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5.3 Knowledge Pre-Test and Post-Test Results 62

5.4 Participant Observation and Individual Responses 69

5.5 Qualitative Survey Analysis 75

5.6 Design Observations 83

6. Conclusions 86

6.1 Research Conclusions 86

6.2 Future Research Considerations 88

Appendix A: IRB Approval 89

Appendix B: Graphics and Screenshots 91

Appendix C: Demographic Survey Data 100

Appendix D: Pre-Test and Post-Test Data 102

Appendix E: Participants’ Individual Responses and Observation Notes 110

Appendix F: Qualitative Survey Data 124

Appendix G: Swift Quiz Question Bank 128

Appendix H: Asset Credits and Sources 137

List of References 164

Biographical Sketch 179

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List of Figures & Tables

Figure 1-1: Shares of Active Applications on the Apple App Store 11

Figure 3-1: Example of Food Answers 30

Figure 3-2: Screenshot of Shooting Food Answers 31

Figure 3-3: Screenshot of Warp Gauge 33

Table 3-1: Relationship between Difficulty Level and Number of Answers

to Questions 34

Figure 3-4: Screenshot of Hint Window with Unlocked Hint 36

Figure 3-5: Swift Quiz Main Menu 38

Figure 3-6: How to Play Window 39

Figure 3-7: Heads Up Display during Gameplay 40

Figure 3-8: Ship Shield with One Hit Left 41

Figure 3-9: High Score Table 41

Figure 4-1: Weapon Definitions Makeup 49

Figure 4-2: Quiz_Enemy Class Makeup 53

Figure 4-3: Enemy Class Hierarchy 54

Figure 5-1: Demographic Age Graph 59

Figure 5-2: Demographic Education Graph 60

Figure 5-3 Graph of Participant’s Claimed Background in Nutrition 61

Table 5-1: Participants’ Background Experience with Video Games 61

Table 5-2: Participants’ Experience with the “Shoot ‘em Up” Genre 61

Table 5-3: Participant Pre-Test and Post-Test Score 64

Table 5-4: Build A Performance by Question Breakdown 65

Table 5-5: Build B Performance by Question Breakdown 67

Table 5-6: Opinions of Overall Game Experience for Build A 76

Table 5-7: Opinions of Overall Game Experience for Build B 76

Table 5-8: Opinions of Overall Usefulness of “How to Play” Menu for Build A 78

Table 5-9: Opinions of Overall Usefulness of “How to Play” Menu for Build B 78

Table 5-10: Opinions on the “Warp Gauge” Mechanic for Build A 79

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Table 5-11: Opinions on the “Warp Gauge” Mechanic for Build B 79

Table 5-12: Opinions on the Educational Content for Build A 81

Table 5-13: Opinions on the Educational Content for Build B 81

Figure A-1: IRB Approval Image 89

Table C-1: Demographic Age Data 100

Table C-2: Demographic Education Data 100

Table C-3: Participant’s Claimed Background Knowledge in Nutrition 100

Table D-1 List of Knowledge Test Questions and Example Answers 102

Table D-2 Knowledge Pre-Test Performance Comparison 107

Table D-3 Knowledge Post-Test Performance Comparison 108

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Abstract

Summary of Project in Lieu of Thesis

Presented to the College of the Arts of the University of Florida

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

Swift Quiz: An Educational Game Design

By: Robert Edward Kleszczynski

January 2017

Supervisory Committee:

Angelos Barmpoutis, Chair

Marko Suvajdzic, Member

Major:

Digital Arts & Sciences

This project attempts to observe the differences in short-term learning potential

that a game can provide based on its relevance of player interactions in the game in

regards to the educational material being presented. The project was executed as a

desktop application through the use of Unity and was tested on 12 subjects in January

2017.

This document specifies the research protocol utilized to measure objective and

subjective data from users on the use of the game. The protocol was composed of a

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demographic survey, a pre-test and post-test on the concepts covered in two different

builds of an educational game, an observed play-test, and a qualitative survey.

Next, this work details the design process of the game, namely the mechanics,

design choices, and the content design.

Lastly, this study records and summarizes the data acquired from the

demographic, comprehension, play, and qualitative tests and surveys as part of the

research protocol.

In short, there is evidence that the design mechanics employed in the two

variations of the game contribute to a better short-term retention of information in

participants. However, it was inconclusive whether the relevance of in-game actions had

a tangible effect on player comprehension due to several factors. The average ability to

complete the post quiz has increased in speed with a higher accuracy than pre-test

scores. In combination with the qualitative data, these findings serve as evidence that

an integrated approach to designing educational games can contribute to making an

effective and fun product that facilitates learning.

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1. Context

1.1 Introduction

In 2001, Mark DeLoura published an editorial posing the question, “Given that

games can teach people, why aren’t there more fun educational games available?” As

of September 2016, educational apps make up roughly nine percent of all available

apps on the store. (“App Store Metrics”)

Figure 1-1: Shares of Active Applications on the Apple App Store

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Given that the barriers to development have dropped with the ease of access to

tools, such as Unity, it should be natural that the number of available games, including

educational games, should increase over the years.

Despite this increased quantity, children spend only three minutes per day

playing educational video games (Statista Report on Children and Educational Media,

2013) in comparison to the average person, who spends about two hours of their day

playing video games. (Metrics 2.0 Report, 2007) This would suggest that educational

games are not as engaging to their demographic audience as an entertainment product.

While leading developers, like PBS Kids, consistently release quality apps for teaching

small children, the quality of third-party developers can vary greatly.

Due to this inconsistency, a child’s overall learning experience with an application

can be compromised due to poor design choices. In order to provide an optimal

learning environment design for a game, a designer must understand which mechanics

are most useful in developing a game that is both entertaining and educational.

This project attempts to measure a participant’s learning and engagement with

an educational game that combines design elements from traditional games with drill

based practice that is common in a classroom. In regards to minimizing extraneous

details, two builds will be created: one in which the actions of the player are more

consistent with real life actions and one that follows more traditional genre design

choices. This difference in gameplay, while slight, aims to observe if there is a learning

difference based on the relevance of in-game actions in regards to the educational

content.

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1.2 Literature Review

Games in education can be broken down into three categories: multimedia

projects, also known as “edutainment,” that emphasize content, commercial games that

are repurposed for education, and a sort of middle-ground in which a game seeks to

create a balance between content and fun. (Moreno-Ger, Burgos, Martinez-Ortiz, Sierra

and Fernandez-Manjon 2008)

For the most part, edutainment focuses on its learning objectives and content

first while adding in some sort of interactive gameplay. In some of the more simple

games, such as Math Baseball, the user is merely rewarded with a small graphical

animation for getting a math problem correct. Some researchers, such as Sim,

MacFaFarlane, and Read, have found that this approach is less successful than the

other two. Given that there is a lack of motivation due to lackluster gameplay, the

benefits of game-based learning fail to materialize, leading to a hindered learning

experience. (Koster, 2005)

On the other side of the spectrum, repurposed commercial games are oftentimes

the cheapest alternative as the game has already been developed. Recently, there has

been a push to use Minecraft in the classroom to teach a myriad of subjects with a wiki

page dedicated to hosting educational applications of the game. (MinecraftEdu Wiki)

One such application has students learning biology through Minecraft’s robust map

generator system which can display different elevations, temperatures, plants, and

climates. (Short, 2012) In a similar fashion, Squire used Civilization III as a simulation

framework to teach world history. The Civilization series are real-time strategy games

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that consist of players fighting each other over thousands of years as technology

progresses from the Stone Age to modern day. In allowing the game’s progress to

unfold, Squire has observed that players can learn complex relationships between the

advancement of technology and geography among other subject matter and compare

them to real life developments.

The downside to such an approach would be that the host game was specifically

made to entertain rather than teach. Because of this, certain things like historical

accuracy may be distorted or simplified to enhance the entertainment value of the

product, thus devaluing the educational elements that may be present in the game. One

such example of this is the way SimCity omits the role of race and ethnicity in the

development and evolution of cities. (Kolson, 1996)

Another drawback to this approach would be the narrative context of the game

may not line up with educational goals, which can conflict in the learning process. In the

words of Fisch, “research on lectures and textbook readings has suggested that

seductive details do not work; children exposed to such material tend to remember the

appealing elements but not the intended educational content.” (Fisch, 2005) This

concept falls in line with the findings of Sim, MacFarlane, and Read in which students

learned the most from a game with the educational elements interwoven in game

mechanics, but actually rated the application with separate educational and game

elements the most “educational.” That is to say students may be inclined to partake in

the “fun” elements in the game while ignoring the educational elements, which is why it

is important to have teachers supervise over the game experience and to employ

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supplemental materials, like lecture and discussion, as needed to help students grasp

the intended concepts. (Pellegrino, Chudowsky, and Glaser 2001)

The final approach attempts to balance the fun and educational aspects in a

tailor-made educational game. Prensky argues that this is the ideal approach by

stating, “… as we design Digital Game-Based Learning we have to consider both

dimensions all the time. Not enough emphasis on learning and we risk falling into being

just a game. Not enough emphasis on engagement and we risk sliding into CBT

[computer based training].” (Prensky, 2007) Current research suggests that there is shift

of interest away from repurposed commercial games in favor of games and other

applications that can more precisely target education goals. (Boyle et All, 2015) With the

availability of engines, such as Unity, it has become easier to create such games that

target specific learning objectives.

However, creating such a game has similar risks to any other endeavor in the

entertainment industry: the cost of development and any risks involved in developing a

product that will capture the audience’s attention. As an alternative to these risks,

Purushotma proposed the modification of existing commercial games to improve their

educational potential. One current development that illustrates this is the Minecraft

Education Edition for schools. According to the Minecraft Education Edition website,

modification adds several extra features, such as student login and extra controls, which

give teachers a foundation to create structured lessons in an interactive virtual

environment. Despite success with the modification of Minecraft, this approach is not

ideal for all applications. Very specific game engines would inevitably limit the

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characteristics that could be modified in the game, while generic game engines present

a high technical barrier to creating worthwhile educational content.

1.3 Learning from Games

According to Wrzesien and Alcañiz Raya, serious games in education are

beneficial for three reasons:

1. Actions are used instead of explanations which fosters motivation and

satisfaction.

2. Serious games allow for a diversity in learning styles and user abilities.

3. Games allow students to explore and compare multiple solutions while

interacting in a virtual world that displays the results of their decisions.

(Wrzesien and Alcañiz Raya, 2010)

In essence, games are an environment safe from scrutiny that allows a player to

explore both right and wrong solutions that can be undone in a “learning by doing”

methodology.

Several researchers have found that serious games in the classroom were

comparable to traditional learning in the short-tem. (Nishikawa and Jaeger; Rondon,

Sassi, and de Andrade, 2011) However, the benefits of long-term learning and

knowledge retention aren’t as consistent, with the former showing better results with

games and the latter indicating traditional lecture to be more effective. Regardless of the

results, it is difficult to research the impact of games over a long-term period due to

other learning stimuli that could be going on simultaneously.

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Discussion of topics in social sciences and society in general through gameplay may

be even more difficult for games to be a benefit in the short-term. Livingston and Stoll

conducted a study to measure the effects of learning about poverty through a turn-

based board game titled “Ghetto.” (Livingston and Stoll, 1973) The game has players

placed in a “ghetto” community in which they are posed with the decision to either

struggle in a low-income job or to engage in high-risk high-reward criminal activities. It

was found that the students’ views on poverty didn’t change dramatically, which can be

equated to the fact that attitudes are built from a lifetime of experiences rather than a

two-hour play session. Furthermore, they observed that low-achieving students were

more inclined to play the game rather than learn from the experience. This may be in

part to the fact that the game wasn’t tied to any concrete locale or historical context,

which assumes that the player can readily relate the experience to an extrinsic situation

or narrative. Therefore, it important to re-stress the concept of creating gameplay styles

and learning styles that complement each other in a blended application. The context of

the game as well as the technology and resources available should also be kept in mind

when designing an optimal learning experience. (Prensky, 2007)

Learning design and gameplay may be an important aspect of creating an effective

learning experience, but one must not forget that user feedback is also an important

facet of learning. According to Gadanidis, feedback is often an afterthought in

educational software. Oftentimes the underlying concepts of the interaction are hidden

from the user, which limits players to a surface level understanding of the topic.

Gadanidis suggests that the designer should provide an explanation of why their answer

was wrong if the student is incorrect. (Gadanidis, 2004)

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In addition to a solid feedback system, educational games require a practical way of

assessing user performance and learning from the experience. Denis and Jouvelot state

that “If an educational game is well suited to the values it conveys, the player’s progress

should reflect his development regarding the learning material. (Denis and Jouvelot,

2005) This way, games provide a natural and stealth evaluation mechanism in which

levels are grades” This style of approach is suitable for games which can be structured

in a level-based structure with a curve in difficulty, however this approach does not lend

itself well to more open-ended games that emphasize exploration over progress.

As an alternative to natural, stealth evaluations, Annetta discusses the concept of

“virtual observation” in which the player’s actions and choices among other things are

recorded in a server-based implementation. (Annetta, 2010) The benefits of such an

approach allow teachers to have a record of the performance of all their student’s

performances as well as the ability to track any progress or actions during sessions of

play. In essence, the game would be able to log any important events or performance

statistics for each player and the teacher has the choice to either grade student

performance themselves or to automate the grading process through a set criteria of

conditions. Modern video games generally reward players for their performance in the

form of achievements or a leader board. For instance, Call of Duty Advanced Warfare

tracks player actions such as disabling drones with EMP grenades or collecting all of

the intelligence in the campaign. Educational games could similarly provide certain

achievements that encourage students to learn and apply specific skills and concepts.

This would allow educational games to encourage students to learn skills and

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information from one setting and apply them in another situation or setting. (Shaffer,

2006)

Along similar lines, researchers also note that a narrative, can serve as a

cognitive framework for problem-solving. (Malone, 1981; Rieber, 1996) Malone argues

that having an intrinsic narrative that is relevant to the game does a better job of

showing how a skill might be used in another setting. Extrinsic narratives, according to

Rieber, are a type of sugarcoating that is common in edutainment games that has no

effect on gameplay. This reasoning is similar to the previous observations that an

educational game’s features must be tightly intertwined with its educational content. In

doing so, designers can create a virtual environment in which our actions have meaning

and the narrative directs us along as we get better at the game.

If we know what aspects can make an educational game effective, why aren’t they

used in the classroom more? Despite being thought of as “the savior of education

because of their ability to simultaneously entertain and educate,” Charsky states that

these games have gained a reputation for being “drill and practice” that is trying to be an

engaging experience. (Charsky, 2010) According to Schifter, one of the major

differences between 21st century serious games and those of the past is the ability to

immerse a player into a world where they feel that they are being a part of the virtual

world rather than just playing in one. (Schifter, 2013)

1.4 Mechanics for Motivational Learning

Researchers often compare the mechanisms of learning in a game with the

fundamental principle of constructivism, which is that learning is not transmitted from

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one person to another, but is a process in which the learner builds knowledge through

their own intentions, motivations, and goals. (Driver, Asoko, Leach Mortimer, & Scott,

1994; Rieber 1996; Squire, 2004) However, the mechanisms of motivation tend to vary

on an individual basis. Bartle has assembled a framework for understanding what

motivates people by breaking things down along two axes: (1) acting on versus

interacting with and (2) the world versus other players. This arrangement effectively

simplifies the motivations of people into four categories, much like the suits of a deck of

cards: those that act on other players (clubs), those that act on the environment

(diamonds), those that interact with other people (hearts), those that interact with the

environment (spades). In other words, diamonds and clubs are more motivated for

competitive reasons, while spades and hearts are motivated by socializing with what’s

around them.

Regardless of the gameplay method, the overall goal is to motivate the player, or

as Csikszentmihalyi puts it, the game must draw players into a state of flow. He defines

flow as "...the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else

seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost,

for the sheer sake of doing it." In order to achieve and maintain this state, there needs

to be an appropriate level of challenge associated with the game. If it is too easy,

boredom results; if the game is too hard, frustration occurs. (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) At

the correct difficulty, players experience a pleasurable frustration that engages the

player.

According to Gee, maintaining a balance in challenge is where deep learning and

good gaming meet. (Gee, 2004) In order to maintain flow, Annetta suggests that there

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ought to be a worthy reward for playing in a harder difficulty or the player’s skill will

outgrow their current challenge, causing flow to diminish. On the other hand, Annetta

also states that certain challenges that are above the player’s current ability should

either offer an option to skip the task or provide alternative tasks that are better suited to

the player’s abilities. In this way, the design of the game adapts to the player’s skills and

maintains an appropriate difficulty curve to maintain flow while playing. In a similar

fashion, Gee’s “Achievement Principle” states that “for learners of all levels of skill, there

are intrinsic rewards from the beginning, customized to each learner’s level, effort, and

growing mastery and signaling the learner’s ongoing achievements.” (Gee, 2003) Lee,

Luchini, Michael, Norris, and Soloway illustrate this process with a handheld math game

in which learners voluntarily increased the difficulty of the game with continued play.

Consequently, these players were able to complete three times as many problems at a

greater difficulty than they would have by way of traditional worksheets. (Lee et All,

2004)

Difficulty may play an integral part in maintaining the flow state, but it is equally

important in designing a clear path to achieve flow. Along the same lines, Kiili states,

“Games should be usable and provide clear goals and appropriate feedback to the

players in order to facilitate the Flow experience.”(Kiili, 2005) Swartout and van Lent

found that offering players different levels of goals helped keep players engaged in the

game. They assert that “Game designers often seek to keep players engaged by

creating three levels of goals: short term (collect the magic keys), lasting, perhaps,

seconds; medium term (open the enchanted safe), lasting minutes; and finally, long

term (save the world), lasting the length of the game.” (Swartout and van Lent, 2003)

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In addition to a functional goal hierarchy, researchers also consider narrative

elements to be essential to the alluring nature of games. (Dickey, 2006; Fisch, 2005)

However, there must be a balance between the narrative and gameplay. As Swartout

and van Lent put it, games are “highly interactive, deliberately generating tension

between the degree of control the story imposes and the player’s freedom of

interaction.” They reason that a game that is too open-ended lacks direction and can

become boring; on the other end of the spectrum, having a too tightly-structured game

relegates the player to a passive spectator role rather than giving the player an active

role. This carefully crafted illusion of free will in a controlled environment is what Gee

calls the “Regime of Competence,” which challenges players to the edge of their

abilities. (Gee, 2003) As previously mentioned, it is also important to note that rewards

from an intrinsic story must also be closely tied to the educational content in the game;

any disconnect between the two could compromise the learning experience. (Waraich,

2004)

1.5 Existing Works

There is a multitude of applications available for sale on the IOS App Store and

the Google Play Store. First-party releases from major developers, such as PBS Kids,

are all highly rated for the most part, while most of the independently developed third-

party releases vary in their ratings. It can be observed that a lot of these seemingly

educational games lean much more heavily on the entertainment side of things rather

than focusing on the educational content in the game. While there are thousands of

apps available on the market, only a few will be analyzed to get a better look at the most

and least effective educational products the market place has to offer.

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As of the writing of this work, the top educational app on the app store is

QuizUp. The game offers a multitude of different quiz topics from art, math, and even

video game trivia around popular video game titles, such as Minecraft. There are

several solid motivational and assessment mechanics implemented in this application.

QuizUp features a “ranking” system set in place to gauge one’s mastery of a topic and

overall player level. Furthermore, the game pairs you with a player of similar ranking in

a series of trivia questions to push each player to do their best. Despite its well-

designed motivational mechanisms for player competition, the feedback and learning

mechanics of this game do not lend well to people who are unfamiliar with the material.

QuizUp simply notifies the user if they are right or wrong and moves on to the next

question. With a lack of remedial mechanics for errors, this is more of a test of what a

user already knows rather than actually teaching users new material. Thus it does not

have a strong feedback system from which players can learn from their mistakes.

Another popular educational app on the IOS store is Kids Doodle. This

application offers several different brushes to draw on a touch surface and has a feature

to record the drawing process. There are no learning objectives in this game. It offers

exploratory potential with different fonts and brushes and colors, but without educational

goals or learning content, this hardly qualifies as an educational product.

One of the more effective learning applications found was Dora’s Great Big

World. Players can learn literacy, math, and science skills with several different

activities targeting each. There is significant feedback for right and wrong answers as

well as adaptive difficulty. The most significant feature missing from this app is a more

detailed performance report to gauge a player’s mastery of concepts.

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Another well-designed educational application is Grammar Pop HD. This app

presents sentences and asks the player to match each word in the sentence to its

corresponding part of speech. Its material is based on mastery and the app provides a

detailed progress report that is broken down by each part of speech. Additionally, there

is a significant feedback system implemented and the difficulty adapts to a player’s skill.

The only mechanic that appears to be absent is the implementation of a system for

remediation of any mistakes that are tracked down in the progress report.

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2. Proposal

2.1 Research Questions

Given that educational games are not effective at capturing an audience, would

injecting educational content into the rules of an already entertaining game genre yield a

more successful game-based learning experience? Furthermore, do the player’s actions

in the game have to be equitable to real-world actions (i.e. eating an apple versus

shooting or selecting an apple) for learning to take place?

2.2 Initial Proposal

In order to explore these questions, two builds of an educational game will be

developed in order to test whether the way a player controls their avatar has an effect

on their ability to learn from the game. One build will implement traditional “Shoot ‘em

Up” genre mechanics and have players shoot objects to answer questions while the

other build will have players collecting their answers. Under the topic of nutrition,

players will effectively be shooting or “eating” answers by collecting on screen objects.

The initial proposal was to examine popular educational applications on the market

place and to design a game that counters the design and education deficiencies seen in

them.

The educational game design model can be outlined as follows:

Feedback Function: Provide some notifications of correct and incorrect answers

and provide remedial material (i.e. an explanation for why the answer is wrong)

to correct user errors.

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Educational Material and Objectives: Create some material with which to

challenge and direct players to a specific level of comprehension.

Motivational Gameplay: Design a game with adaptive difficulty that encourages

players to keep playing for the sake of playing.

2.3 Research Protocol

Research through the use of participants to test and critique the two builds was

an essential element of this project, which was aimed at assessing the following

questions about the developed application:

Does the artifact have a smooth user experience, or does it suffer from usability

issues?

Do participants find the game to be interesting and enjoyable?

Are participants reporting the experience as educational?

Do participants exhibit improved comprehension of the concepts covered in the

game?

Does the relevance of player’s actions to the material affect the player’s

comprehension of the educational content?

A research protocol was submitted to the University of Florida’s Institutional Review

Board (UF IRB-02) summarized with the following activities for assessment:

Democratic Survey (5 minutes): Collect limited demographic data focused on

technological skill and experience playing games.

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Content Pre-Test and Post-Test (20 Minutes): This attempts to register a

player’s competency and understanding of the educational content before and

after playing one of the two game builds.

Play Test and Observation (15 minutes): Participants will be randomly

assigned by coin flip to play one of two builds of the game. During play,

participants will be observed for any signs of difficulty with user interface and

gameplay while simultaneously gauging user behaviors and patterns during play.

Qualitative Survey (5 minutes): Acquire user opinions about their experiences

with the game in an attempt to identify which parts of the experience were

enjoyed or disliked.

The UF IRB-02 approved this study as an expedited study under category 7:

“Research on individual or group characteristics or behavior (including, but not

limited to, research on perception, cognition, motivation, identity, language,

communication, cultural beliefs or practices, and social behavior) or research

employing survey, interview, oral history, focus group, program evaluation, human

factors evaluation, or quality assurance methodologies.” The request was assigned

Protocol ID IRB201601930 and was approved on 6 January, 2017 (Appendix A).

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3. Design

3.1 Interaction Design

Based on the findings and suggestions of other researchers in sections 1.2-1.4,

an effective educational game ought to have these characteristics:

1. The gameplay and learning mechanics must be tightly intertwined. (Prensky,

2007)

2. A feedback function in which players are told whether their answer is right or

wrong, This system should also attempt to help the player understand the

content if they consistently get the wrong answer. (Gadanidis, 2004)

3. The difficulty must be adjustable to a player’s mastery of the game and its

content. (Annetta, 2010)

Due to the difficulties of successfully of intertwining the educational portion of the

game with elements of fun gameplay, Brown and Dascalu proposed to build upon

standard gaming genres when creating a fun and engaging experience. In their

work, they created a game that teaches music by combining a standard “Shoot ‘em

Up” style game with drill based practice on key signature memorization.

In order to avoid the often bifurcated implementation of educational games,

Brown and Dascalu sought to create an interaction that constantly presented the

educational content to the user in a way that is a part of the core gameplay. In the

end, the “Shoot ‘em Up” genre was chosen due to the following reasons:

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1. The gameplay is focused on a singular goal rather than multiple different

goals due to the difficulty in converting each mechanic into an educational

experience.

2. The gameplay loop should be repetitive in nature so as to work well with

drill based learning and practice.

3. The overall goal of the game should be accomplished by actions that are

consistent throughout the experience.

4. Educational drills should not alter the core gameplay in any way.

In general, the core gameplay of a “Shoot ‘em Up” game is focused on

navigating around a screen while shooting enemies and accumulating a high

score. This repetitive core gameplay complements drill based practice and allows

for the integration of the educational content into the actions of the game.

Furthermore, the accumulation of a score may act as an approximate tracking

mechanic for the progress a player is making in regards to their skills in the game

and the comprehension of educational content.

In fulfillment of this project’s first requirement, the design for this project

will be in the form of a modified “Shoot ‘em Up” game with two builds showcasing

different mechanics to answer questions. The choice of genre also falls in line

with the goal framework presented by Swartout and van Lent in which answering

questions correctly is the short-term goal, moving to higher difficulties is the mid-

term goal, and achieving a high score is the long-term goal. The implementations

will differ in that the required player actions in the game will be changed in

30

regards to the relevance of the educational material, which will be nutrition in this

case.

The topic of nutrition was chosen because of the ease of translating in-

game actions into a relevant action based on the topic. Collecting power-ups is a

well-established gaming mechanic that is almost a universally familiar action in

gaming. By adding in a “crunch,” or other sound that relates to eating the food-

based answers, it can be inferred that the player is eating the items that they are

collecting on the screen. Eating the correct foods in regard to questions raises

their score while eating the incorrect foods lowers their score by a smaller

amount. To further the justification of using simple food images or text is that the

use of quick images or simple text as answers on the screen allows for the game

to progress without requiring the player to key in their answers to questions.

Figure 3-1: Example of Food Answers

31

On the other hand, the other build of the game will employ the genre’s

traditional shooting mechanics to raise the player’s score. The player will be

subjected to a swarm of enemies and they must selectively shoot the correct

foods to raise their score. Shooting the incorrect foods will lower their score and

colliding with anything will damage their avatar much in the traditional “Shoot ‘em

Up” sense.

Figure 3-2: Screenshot of Shooting Food Answers

The drill action chosen for integration into this format shall be a modified

multiple choice quiz. Seeing as there are many educational games utilizing a sort

of question based progression, including the previously observed QuizUp and

Grammar Pop HD, it would be reasonable to use this action to integrate into the

32

gameplay. The different answer choices of the question could then be set as

different enemies or collectibles that would fly around the player.

Since there will be multiple questions being asked in this quiz-based

game, the allotment of time for each question must be taken into consideration.

According to the University of Central Florida’s Faculty Center for Teaching and

Learning, fact-based multiple choice questions can be allotted as little as thirty

seconds each. (University of Central Florida Teaching Online: Assessments,

2016) Starting with that base time allotment, the design should also take into

account a player’s skill in the game and their ability to answer correctly quickly.

By giving a player an additional thirty seconds to navigate around the obstacles

and another thirty for compensating for the random spawn behavior of answers,

an allotment of ninety seconds should work well for players to correctly answer

the question and progress onto the next question with time to spare. Should the

timer end while in the middle of answering a question, the game will end and the

player will be brought to a high scores table.

Progression of questions will be managed through filling a “warp gauge”

by collecting or destroying the correct answers to a question. Brown and Dascalu

proposed a similar mechanic in which a player’s fire power was based on a

power gauge. Answering the question correctly would increase the gauge and

answering incorrectly would decrease the gauge. In addition to these conditions,

the gauge will gradually drain over time should no action be taken, encouraging

the player to maintain their immersion in the game. By having the gauge tied to a

player’s actions and comprehension of the question, this design will have a quick

33

and intuitive feedback system in which players will know whether their answer is

right or wrong. However, this only partially fulfills the design’s second

requirement. Player assistance will covered further down.

Figure 3-3: Screenshot of Warp Gauge

In the implementation for Swift Quiz, the gauge will fill up and drain in a

similar manner. Unlike Brown’s and Dascalu’s proposal, however, this gauge is

tied to a player’s progress in answering the question. Players will not be able to

advance to the next question unless they are able to fill the gauge in the allotted

time. Once the gauge is full, it stops draining and prompts the player to press a

key to either receive a question of similar difficulty or increase the difficulty of

future questions in exchange for a score multiplier. In doing so, we accomplish

the third design goal of providing an adjustable difficulty system.

The difficulty of the game will be categorized into five different levels.

There will be the typical “easy”, “medium”, and “hard” levels with the addition of a

34

“very easy” level in order to get an understanding of the game and its mechanics

and a “very hard” game to challenge skillful and knowledgeable players. “Shoot

‘em Up” titles like Space Megaforce, which also has five levels of difficulty,

employ a similar difficulty level implementation, but their levels are weighed more

heavily towards the higher difficulties to challenge players. Unlike these games,

this project seeks to both teach and entertain players, so a more balanced

difficulty hierarchy was chosen to prevent frustration for those unfamiliar with the

genre and to stimulate more experienced players.

These levels of difficulty will be distinguished by the answer spawn rate,

the number of possible answers to the question, and the content of the

questions. With a rise in difficulty, there will be an increase in the spawn rate and,

likewise, an increase in the possible number of answers to a question.

The number of questions per difficulty level is as follows:

Question Difficulty Number of Answers Number of Correct

Answers

1 3 1

2 4 1

3 5 2

4 6 2

5 6 1

Table 3-1 Relationship between Difficulty Level and Number of Answers to Questions

35

While there is a large debate over the ideal number of answers to a question,

Nwadinigwe and Naibi’s findings suggest that the numbers do not make that much of a

difference. However, their findings do suggest that that students perceive questions with

five answers as more difficult than those with three, which can play into the five different

difficulty levels. (Nwadinigwe and Naibi, 2013) Since the answers are spawned

randomly, only three answers will make it more likely for the correct answer to spawn

on-screen. Coupled with the relative increase in perceived ease and the increased

probability of guessing correctly, the first level of difficulty should be rather easy for

those struggling with concepts or having difficulty playing the game. The second and

third level both adopt the more traditional approach to multiple choice questions by

presenting four or five answers to a question. These would be suitable for those of

average skill and knowledge to continue playing. Stages three and four both offer two

correct answers to the question as a suitable challenge to more difficult questions and

more familiar players at the cost of a larger pool of answers being spawned on screen.

The final level sports the highest spawn rate and also six possible answers of which

only one is correct. This final difficulty level is set for those seeking to boost their score

the most at the cost of difficult questions and frenzied gameplay. This adjustable

mechanic seeks to encourage players to voluntarily increase the difficulty with play,

which can lead to the improved comprehension of content in comparison to traditional

methods. (Lee et All, 2004)

Should the player have difficulties in answering the question, assistance is

provided in the form of a pop-up window and a hint. The pop-up window will consist of

the question, all of the possible answers in written form, and the hint. This is done in

36

case the player has difficulties in figuring out the graphic representations of any of the

answers. Care was taken in making each answer easily recognizable, but there is still a

possibility of the player finding it difficult to identify the graphical representation.

Inclusion of the answers in written form will assist in removing any possibilities of the

player being confused by the graphics flying around their avatar. Players can access

this window at any time by pressing the “tab” key on the keyboard. The game action will

be paused, providing the player additional time to think over their answer if needed.

Figure 3-4: Screenshot of Hint Window with Unlocked Hint

The provided hint is locked at the start of every question. This is done so as to

encourage players to think about the question themselves before receiving any

37

assistance. Should the player answer the question incorrectly twice, which is the

number of wrong choices in the easiest difficulty and a surefire sign the player is simply

guessing, a sound will be played and an exclamation mark will be displayed in an

otherwise blank box on the heads up display. The next time the player opens up the

pop-up window, the hint will be unlocked and should aim to steer the player in the right

direction when answering the question. The hint is used to try and enlighten the player

of the underlying concepts of the question, which helps to teach the player the actual

concept theme chosen for that specific difficulty level. This allows for players to get an

understanding of why they are wrong and provides them with the ability to learn from

their actions, which Gadanidis argues is absent in many educational games.

3.2 User Experience Design

Creating a smooth experience is also an important aspect of effective game

design. In order to be able to test the whole experience, the game is made to last

approximately ten to fifteen minutes based on a player’s skill. This experience will

take the user through the following five steps:

1. Main Menu

2. Topic Selection

3. Countdown

4. Gameplay

5. High Score Table

38

Figure 3-5: Swift Quiz Main Menu

Like most games, the player is taken to a main menu that allows them start the

game, quit the application, or mute the sound. To ensure that the user knows the

rules of the game, the inclusion of a “how to” button on the main menu will allow for

even those unfamiliar with the “Shoot ‘em Up” genre to understand the basic

controls as well as the unique rules of the game. Upon clicking this button, a window

will pop up with several diagrams explaining the controls as well as the rules of the

game.

39

Figure 3-6: How to Play Window

Before the game starts, a pop-up window quickly explains the rules of the

game for those that skipped clicking on the “How To” button. This is to ensure

players understand what is going on during play as the rules are slightly different

from a typical “Shoot ‘em Up” game. After clicking the confirm button, the player is

given control of the ship and the question is displayed at the bottom left of the

screen with a countdown before the game starts spawning enemies. This location is

chosen so as to stay out of the way of the moving objects on screen and minimize

overlap with the game action. Once the countdown ends, players are able to pause

the game, giving them the ability to quit to the main menu or mute the music.

40

Figure 3-7: Heads Up Display during Gameplay

In the shooting build, players will be able to continue playing the game so

long as their ship is still intact. When a player collides with the ship, their shield,

which is denoted by a green circle around the player, is decreased by one level,

either cracking the shield or decimating it. In contrast, there will be no health

penalties in the collection build as players must run into objects to collect them. This

perceived easing of gameplay is compensated by the fact that players won’t be able

to shoot answers from afar and will have to navigate through the crows of wrong

answers, which will provide score penalties if they are touched.

41

Figure 3-8: Ship Shield with One Hit Left

Once the player is overrun by the enemy or time runs out, they will be directed to

a table of high scores. Much like many arcade shooting games, the high score table

is set to show players how well they have done in comparison to others and to

encourage them to become better at the game and, in doing so, better at the subject

material. After reviewing their performance in the game, players can ether elect to

play again or return to the main menu.

Figure 3-9: High Score Table

42

3.3 Content Design

The educational content of the game is centered on nutrition. With

each level of difficulty, there is a central concept to tie the questions

together. Due to the fast moving nature of the items on screen, the answers

are designed to be quickly identifiable images or simple text that a player

can easily identify in a split second. To make things a little bit easier on the

player, the answers are surrounded by a color coded border to help them

identify correct and incorrect answers once they have found the solution to

the question. There is no correlation between a correct answer and its

border color in subsequent questions so as to prevent potential cheaters

from just finding the “correct” color.

The bank of questions will start with some basic questions on our

daily intake of different food groups and which kinds of foods should be

eaten in a day. At levels three and four, questions will discuss the

nutritional values of foods and what they do for the body. Level five will

assess the player’s knowledge of different vitamins and minerals in foods

and their effects on the body.

43

4: Development

4.1 Development Tools

Unity was chosen as the engine for development due to porting

flexibility and its overall ease of use. In order to create assets for the

game, Adobe Photoshop was chosen as the primary graphic tool

because of its ease of use and having a well-established background

with this program. Most assets are manipulations of already existing

photographs with a Creative Commons License. Asset credits and

sources can be found in Appendix H.

4.2 Implementation Details

The basic prototype of a “Shoot ‘em Up” game were taken from

Jeremy Gibson’s Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping and

Development. (Gibson, 2015) This includes the programming for basic

enemy and player behaviors as well as the shooting and power-up

spawning code. The answers begin with a basic class that denote a

basic move function and health. Each answer subclass then has its own

movement pattern, such as a sine wave, and values for health. There

are several methods added to the answer base class to make it work in

context of the game design:

44

A random number generator to randomly assign a number to

the instance of the object; this number serves as an index that

represents an answer from the bank.

An “ID check” function that checks the generated number and

changes the object texture to the corresponding answer’s

graphic.

An “Answer Check” function that checks whether the ID

matches the correct answer when the object is destroyed by a

player’s projectile. If the answer is incorrect, it subtracts a small

portion of the warp gauge. Otherwise a correct answer nets the

player some points and a boost to the warp gauge.

User interface elements, including the buttons, pause menu, pop out

menus, and high score table, were all programmed from the ground up to

have simple to use elements that complement the simplicity of the game.

There is a base button class with basic methods to change the

button’s texture to being highlighted or click and a virtual method to load

another scene when clicked. Rather than loading a scene, the mute button

subclass uses a stored variable in PlayerPrefs to check the audio state of

the game to toggle the volume accordingly.

45

The high score table has an array of scores and names set in

PlayerPrefs to keep track of the best performing players. When the high

score scene is loaded, it checks to see if the temporarily stored player’s

score is greater than any of the scores on the table. If there is a new high

score, a dialog box pops up to ask for the player’s name. Once a new

name is confirmed, the table is cascaded up with the updated scores of the

top players.

The scripts for fading music, pop up dialog boxes, and the cluster bar

were also programmed for the purposes of this study. Passing in a one or

negative one value will dictate which the desired fade direction. The fading

script automates the volume on a linear interpolation curve from zero to

one over a set period of time. In a similar fashion, the dialog box sizes are

also automated with linear interpolations that are triggered by a bool value

passed into a “pop-up” method.

The warp bar has a method that is called every time an answer is

destroyed or collected. Depending on whether the answer is correct or not,

a bool is passed into the method to check whether the bar increases or

decreases. Based on this value, the bar’s current value is adjusted along

an interpolation to reflect the current status of the bar. In addition to this

check, there is also a “drain” function that continually reduces the gauge by

46

a small amount over a period of time, thus encouraging the player to seek

out the correct answers quickly to reduce the effects of drain on the gauge.

Once the gauge is full, the game action is paused, all answers are

destroyed, and a pop-up box is displayed asking if the player wants to

increase difficulty or stay on the same level. Choosing either of these

options clears the screen of answers and primes the player for the next

question.

Should the player decide to stay, the QuizManager will not increment

its difficulty variable. This variable represents the spawn rate of answers as

well as which array of questions this script will pull from, with the lowest

difficulty being one and the highest being five. In addition to this, the index

of the question that was just given will be added to a list that keeps track of

previous questions asked in this level. One question is randomly selected

from the pool and the script checks to see if the question index has already

been used; if it has, another question will be randomly selected. Should all

the questions be asked, the questions will begin to repeat, encouraging the

player to advance to the next level. The selected question will be displayed

along with a three-second countdown before answers start spawning to

give the player a little bit of time to read the question before the action picks

up again.

47

Otherwise, choosing to increase the difficulty will add a small node on

the warp gauge to signify the increase in difficulty. The list that is holding all

of the previously used question indexes will be wiped blank in preparation

for the new difficulty tier.

The script for fading scenes was found on the Unity Wiki and slightly

modified to work with the game. The fade to black is controlled by

manipulating the alpha value of a black plane placed right in front of the

camera. Passing in one or negative one dictates which the fade direction.

The infinite scrolling background is implemented through the use of

two tiled backgrounds that have a seamless transition between them. Once

a single tile’s top is near the camera bounds, the alternating instance of the

tile is instantiated to continue the pattern with any off-screen textures at the

bottom being deleted to free up resources. The value of which tile to use is

stored by a bool variable that is changed every time a new background tile

is spawned in preparation for the next one.

4.3 Back-end Development

The Utils script is made up of static functions that can be called

anywhere throughout the code. It mostly comprises of useful methods that

are called over and over throughout the game, such as checking if an

48

object is in bounds on the game screen. The BoundsUnion and

CombineBounds methods are used to add together all the bounds of the

children objects of the player ship and answer objects. It effectively creates

a bounds of the entire player object with which to check if it is either on or

off the screen. The bounds of the camera are set with static, read-only

property called camBounds. For this property to work properly, the camera

must be orthographic and have the rotation set to (0,0, 0). There are two

Vector3’s set up to represent the top-left-near plane and the bottom-right-

far plane. The X and Y values are the top left and bottom right corners

respectively with the Z corresponding to the nearest and farthest points on

the screen. The ScreenBoundsCheck method is then called in the Hero

script’s Update method to make sure the player’s ship is onscreen at all

times by way of multiple checks on the maximum and minimum bounds of

the camera and the ship. The FIndTaggedParent method is used to check

the identity of the object that is hit. It climbs the hierarchy of the collided

object until it finds a tag that denotes the identity of the object.

The mechanics of upgrading weapons and different weapon types have

been disabled for the sake of scope management. While there is an enum

of multiple weapon types, the only utilized option is the “blaster” and

49

“shield” for this prototype. Due to Unity’s inability to display dictionaries in

the Inspector, all of the behaviors were defined by an alternate means.

The WeaponDefinition class includes the weapon type and several

other variables responsible for the way it behaves onscreen, including

damage, velocity, color, and power up aesthetics (which can be observed

as “Type,” “Letter,” and “Color” in Fig 4-1). In the Main script, an array was

created to hold all of the possible weapon types for this prototype. In the

inspector, the actual color, name, and damage types were specified for

both the blaster and the shield.

Figure 4-1: Weapon Definitions Makeup

50

In order to store and access the weapon definitions in the Main class,

a generic dictionary, W_DEFS, with the weapon type as the key and the

weapon definitions as the value. W_DEFS is initialized in the Awake

method of the Main script and then utilized in the GetWeaponDefinitions

method. To get around a race issue, the Hero class has to set weapons in

the Start method to give time for the definitions to be initialized.

The projectile class contains of a property that changes its behaviors

and color according to the current weapon type. For this build, this class is

only responsible for initializing the behaviors of the blaster class, which is a

single bullet moving in a straight line. Once spawned, the projectile has a

check every two seconds to see if it is off-screen in order to delete

unnecessary instances of the object.

The shield power-up’s behavior is dictated by the PowerUp class,

which has ranges for drift and rotation as well as a lifetime and fade out

time for the object to be displayed on the screen. The powerup randomly

rotates and drifts around a randomly generated unit sphere to make it

appear to float around the screen. When the player ship collides with the

powerup, the AbsorbPowerUp method goes through a switch case to check

the weapon type of the power up. Since the only available option in this

51

build is a shield, the shield level is incremented and the displayed texture is

updated.

4.4 Gameplay Development

Development of gameplay started with the control of the onscreen

ship. The player’s position is updated every frame by checking the

Input.GetAxis(), which returns a value between one and negative one, for

both horizontal and vertical axes and multiplying it by a speed value and

Time.deltaTime. In addition to moving the ship, its rotation is also updated

based on the value of the input axes, making the ship feel like it is

swooping in the direction it is moving. The speed and rotation values were

modified from the book to taste. In order to detect collisions, the

OnCollisionEnter method calls the FindTaggedParent method in the Utils

script to climb the collided object’s hierarchy to find a tag on the parent

object and then changes the shield’s value, plays a sound, and then either

deletes the item or plays an explosion animation based on the identity of

the tag. Shooting controls for the player ship have been modified from the

textbook in that the player can fire continuously as long as the space bar is

held down.

52

Firing weapons is handled by a delegate in the Hero class. Although

the additional weapons feature of the base prototype has been disabled,

the delegate has the ability to add each weapon’s Fire method for multiple

shots from the player ship should it be made upgradeable.

Implementation of the shield was achieved through the utilization of a

transparent textured quad and a sphere collider to catch any possible

collision with answer objects in the shooting build. By setting the Tiling and

Offset values in the shader to less than one, the texture file is able to hold

all of the states of the shield, allowing the script to simply increment or

decrement the offset value by .2 to change the shield state. The

currentLevel of the shield is checked against the shieldLevel property in the

Update method to make sure that the correct shield strength is displayed at

any given time. In the shieldLevel property, there is a check to see if the

level does not surpass four and a check to destroy the ship and end the

game if it reaches zero.

53

Fig 4-2 Quiz_Enemy Class Makeup

The Quiz_Enemy base class sets a foundation for all other enemy

subclasses with variables, such as health, speed, and score variables, to

get the basic behavior answers. (Fig 4-2) The power up value variable is

used to dictate how much the warp gauge is filled or removed when this

particular instance of the answer is destroyed. For the sake of this study,

this value is constant. It also stores an array of answer indices so as to

randomly select an answer to the on-screen question.

54

Fig 4-3: Enemy Class Hierarchy

All enemy behavior is derived from this base class. The only thing

that changes between subclasses is the way the virtual Move method is

overridden. Depending on the subclass of the answer, the Move method

denotes several movement patterns with which the object may move:

straight down, a sinusoidal, or zigzag motion, zooming forward and then

falling back, and swooping in from the side. The side- swooping motion is

implemented by a linear interpretation with two randomly selected points

that is eased by a sine wave to create the movement curve. The vertical-

swooping motion is implemented through a three-point Bezier curve. The

beginning and end points are both off screen while the middle point is

55

randomly chosen in the bottom half of the screen. While the answer never

reaches as far as the middle point, it serves as an influence on the course

of motion, much like the sine wave easing for the side-swoop motion.

Answers will be destroyed in two hits, forgiving the player for involuntarily

shooting the wrong target. Based on the difficulty level, a check is put in the

Start method to increase the enemy’s speed and health in tandem with

spawn rate to make the gameplay more difficult.

Each time an answer is hit by a projectile, all of the materials of the

object and its children that are stored in an array by GetMaterials() are set

to red for several frames before being set to a pink color to signify that the

cluster has been shot once. Shooting an answer for the second time

destroys the object and triggers a check to see if the ID is the correct

answer. The destruction or collection of an answer plays a sound

depending on whether it is correct or not and replenishes or drains the

gauge by a set amount.

Each answer has a small chance to drop a power up in the shooting

build. In the ShipDestroyed method, a random number is generated to

check against the probability value. If it is less than that value, another

random value is used to decide the index of the item being spawned; in the

current implementation, the shield power-up is the only active power-up.

56

Spawning answers is taken care of by the Main script. The rate is

controlled by the enemySpawnPerSecond variable, which increases with

each successive difficulty level. By using a randomly generated number,

the behavior of the next enemy is randomly selected before being

instantiated off screen.

57

5: Research Results

5.1 Data Summary

As previously stated in the Research Protocol section, data was

collected through several research methods:

Demographic Survey (5 minutes)

Content Pre-Test and Post-Test (20 Minutes)

Play Test of One Build and Observation (15 minutes)

Qualitative Survey (5 minutes)

Both surveys and the pre-test and post-test were collected by way of a

survey built in SurveyMonkey. Before participation, a coin was flipped to

see which build to expose to the player, heads designated the shooting

build and tails designated the collecting build. All subsequent surveys were

then broken down by this outcome to separate responses from participants

of the shooting build (Build A) and the collection build (Build B). Responses

were acquired anonymously and analyzed without any identifying

information. The testing sample consisted of 12 individuals, yielding a total

of 3 hours of play-testing, or 1.5 hours for each build, and observation data.

The research sessions took place in Gainesville, Florida on January 6,

2017.

58

5.2 Demographic Analysis

By keeping in mind that there are a lot of variables that can affect a

user’s enjoyment and comprehension of the game’s concepts, questions in

the demographic survey were focused on the user age-group, their

perceived level of knowledge on nutrition, and any previous experience

with games. The demographic questions were mostly chosen from the

bank of demographic and proficiency questions built into SurveyMonkey.

The complete collection of demographic data can be viewed in Appendix C.

The following is a summary of the data collected from the demographic

survey:

Age Group: The audience for both builds were quite similar

with the majority of participants being male between the ages of

twenty-one and twenty-nine. The only difference is that the

shooting build (Build A) had one participant between the ages

of thirty and thirty-nine, whereas the collecting build (Build B)

did not.

59

Figure 5-1: Demographic Age Graph

Level of Education: Build A’s audience consisted individuals

with less of an educational background with 50% stating having

“Some College” education with the majority of participants not

completing college. Build B’s audience had a higher education

background with 50% of individuals completing a Bachelor’s

degree and all participants stating they have at least some

college education.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

18-20

21-29

30-39

Skipped

What is Your Age?

Build B Build A

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Figure 5-2: Demographic Education Graph

General Nutrition Experience: Build A’s audience claimed to

have a higher knowledge of nutrition with all but one participant

answering “Average” or above, which in turn can be interpreted

that these individuals have a higher average innate interest in

the topic of nutrition. On the other hand, Build B’s audience did

not display such a high understanding of nutrition with all

participants answering “Average” or below.

0 1 2 3 4

Less Than High School

High School Diploma

Some College

Associate's Degree

Bachelor's Degree

Graduate Degree and Above

Skipped

What is the Highest Level of School that You Have Completed?

Build B Build A

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Figure 5-3: Graph of Participant’s Claimed Background in Nutrition

Video Game Experience: All participants for both builds have

stated that they have experience playing video games.

However, one participant that played Build A has stated they

have no experience with the “Shoot ‘em Up” genre.

Have you had any experience playing video games?

Build A (Number / Percent)

Build B (Number/Percent)

Yes 6 / 100% 6 / 100%

No 0 / 0% 0 / 0%

Skipped 0 / 0% 0 / 0%

Total 6 6 Table 5-1: Participant’s Background Experience with Video Games

Have you had experience playing a “Shoot ‘em Up”

game?

Build A (Number / Percent)

Build B (Number/Percent)

Yes 5 / 83.33% 6 / 100%

No 1 / 16/67% 0 / 0%

Skipped 0 / 0% 0 / 0%

Total 6 6 Table 5-2: Participant’s Experience with the “Shoot ‘em Up” Genre

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5

Very Low

Somewhat Low

Average

Somewhat High

Very High

Skipped

How Much Background Would You Say You Have in Nutrition?

Build B Build A

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This sample was almost all familiar with the “Shoot ‘em Up” genre.

This sample may be biased due to that fact that individuals unfamiliar with

the “Shoot ‘em Up” style of gameplay, or unfamiliar with games in general,

may be underrepresented. Due to their familiarity with the genre, this

sample may be more focused on the content of the game rather than the

underlying mechanics. Since the game is designed to teach those who are

not familiar with many of the concepts of nutrition, the data may be slightly

biased for Build A due to the sample’s claimed familiarity with nutrition,

which may spoil the experience to some extent.

5.3 Knowledge Pre-Test and Post-Test Results

Knowledge Test Structure:

The objective of using pre- and post- tests is to check the

participant’s knowledge on nutrition and whether or not they found the

relevance of in-game actions helpful or hindering. The questions were

related to the concepts experienced in the game with a change in the

wording and order of questions for the post-test. The tests were

administered to assess the educational impact it had on participants and to

see if the relevance of in-game actions to the content should be explored

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further. The complete collection of numerical data and responses can be

found in Appendix D.

The tests consisted of ten open-response questions on nutritional

concepts such as nutrient serving sizes and other design concepts that

were implemented in the application. Open-response was chosen over

multiple choice to assess the knowledge and observations of the

participant. Should multiple choice response have been chosen,

participants could guess on the questions rather than really sharing their

knowledge on the topic, which could potentially compromise any

observations of the impact the game had on their thinking.

The concepts covered in the questionnaire stem from some basic

principles in nutrition that are espoused by the USDA, such as limiting your

intake of sodium, fat, and sugars. (Dietary Guidelines) Other such concepts

include daily intake of different servings of the food groups, vitamin and

mineral content in different foods, foods beneficial for heart health,

additional calories in foods, and the amount of certain foods that would

represent one serving.

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Overall Player Score Results:

The mean scores on the knowledge pre-test were rather similar for

both builds with a value of 3.67 correct answers per participant. However,

Build A had a more consistent player score of 4 – 6 correct being the case

for 5 out of 6 participants. The scores of Build B were less consistent with 2

participants scoring at least 3 points higher on the pre-test than the

remaining 4 participants. By looking at the majority of scores rather than

the mean, we can observe that the participants’ perceived nutrition

knowledge, which was based on responses to the demographic survey, is

more or less reflected in the pre-test results with the majority of Build A

participants scoring higher than the majority Build B’s players.

Build A Pre

Build A Post

Change in Score

Build B Pre

Build B Post

Change in Score

4 3 -1 7 9 +2

4 6 +2 2 3 +1

4 7 +3 2 6 +4

6 7 +1 2 6 +4

0 4 +4 6 6 0

4 6 +2 3 2 -1

Mean:

3.67 5.5 +1.83 3.67 5.33 +1.67

STD Deviation:

STD Deviation

1.58 1.89 Table 5-3: Participant Pre-Test and Post-Test Scores

After conducting T-tests on the pre- and post-test scores for both

builds it was found that the increase in Build A was statistically significant

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with a p value of .023914 while Build B was not statistically significant with

a p value of .052529.

Question Performance Breakdown:

If we are to look at the performance changes by question, however,

we will find that players in Build B had gained an average of 1.6 correct

responses in comparison to Build A’s 0.9 increase. In doing a T-test on

participant performance on individual questions we find that both builds had

statistically significant increases to performance with p-values of .027137

and .012881 respectively. According to these figures, it would appear that

Build B influenced players in a greater way, which is contradictory to

analysis of performance based on overall score. Thus, it would be

reasonable to delve further into individual player responses and behaviors

to check the qualitative differences of their pre- and post-test responses.

Build A Performance by Question Breakdown

Questionnaire

Pre-test Number of

Correct Responses

Post-test Number of

Correct Responses

Change in Correct

Responses

Notes/ Observations

What is the difference between energy-rich and nutrient-rich foods?

5 4 -1 Decrease was from a less descriptive wording of the answer.

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What is an example of additional calories for a serving of fruit?

4 4 0 Answer was changed to additional syrup/sugars in 3 cases.

Why should you limit your intake of certain dairy products?

1 3 +2 More mentioned fat in their answer. Possibly due to hint

What are 3 nutrients that should be limited in your diet?

0 1 +1 Increase of 1 partially correct response.

Why are some servings of food larger than others for a similar amount of nutrients (E.g. 1 serving of spinach versus 1 serving of green beans)?

3 3 0 Hint did not help players.

Which food groups can serve as a good source of protein?

1 4 +3 Answers were more varied

due to answers to in

game questions.

Provide an example of a food that can fit into more than one food group.

5 5 0 2 changed answers to

beans.

What nutrient is not added back to enriched grain products?

1 3 +2 Text answer

Why are salmon and blueberries both beneficial to heart health?

0 0 0 0 to 4 partially correct responses from Pre- to Post-test.

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What is a nutrient not typically found in fruits?

2 4 +2 Text Answer

Mean Change +0.9 Table 5-4 Build A Performance by Question Breakdown

Build B Performance by Question Breakdown

Questionnaire Pre-test Number of

Correct Responses

Post-test Number of

Correct Responses

Change in Correct

Responses

Notes

What is the difference between energy-rich and nutrient-rich foods?

4 3 -1 2 answers completely changed. Third was similarly vague

What is an example of additional calories for a serving of fruit?

1 4 +3 2 jam and 2 sugar in post-test. Only one answered with juice in pre-test, none in post.

Why should you limit your intake of certain dairy products?

2 5 +3 More mentioned fat due to provided hint.

What are 3 nutrients that should be limited in your diet?

1 1 0 3 to 4 partial correct answers.

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Why are some servings of food larger than others for a similar amount of nutrients (E.g. 1 serving of spinach versus 1 serving of green beans)?

2 4 +2 Players who

skipped answered correctly due to hints.

Which food groups can serve as a good source of protein?

4 3 -1 Answer was

simplified to meats.

Provide an example of a food that can fit into more than one food group.

3 6 +3 3 answers changed to beans, 0 to peas

What nutrient is not added back to enriched grain products?

1 5 +4 Text Answers in game.

Why are salmon and blueberries both beneficial to heart health?

0 0 0 1 to 3 partially correct answers

What is a nutrient not typically found in fruits?

3 6 +3 Text Answer

Mean Change +1.6 Table 5-5 Build B Performance by Question Breakdown

Observations of the above charts show that some questions,

including the listing of 3 nutrients and the naming of nutrients beneficial to

heart health, were not effectively written to convey a desired response from

individuals due to almost zero correct answers for either question even

after play. Perhaps this was due to the complexity of the question in an

open response format. Asking players to remember multiple things from a

single question in fast-paced gameplay may be too much to expect.

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Despite the lack of an increase in fully correct answers, participants in both

builds did happen to provide partially correct answers with help from the

provided hint in the game.

In addition to this, it can be observed in Table D-3 that participants of

Build A were still skipping questions in the post-test whereas there was

only one skipped question from the Build B post-test responses. The

concepts behind each question were explained with in-game hints. Based

on this observation, players from Build A were more reluctant to resort to

hints than Build B.

One final thing that can be observed is that questions with text-based

answers in the game yielded a sizeable increase in correct responses from

both builds. Perhaps this was due to the relative simplicity of the answer to

the question. Single word answers for a nutrient typically not found in fruits,

for example, seemed to be easy enough to remember for participants of

both builds.

5.4 Participant Observation and Individual Responses:

The observation of play testing was done so as to assess any

differences in player reactions to the different builds, identify any aspects of

the interface or game design that hindered the user’s experience, and find

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any behaviors or interactions that were not predicted during the

development of the game. Participants were asked to say what they were

thinking as they were playing the game and describe what was going on in

their head through the experience with a focus on when they weren’t sure

of what to do or confused about the in-game content. All of this data was

collected for the purpose of improving any future builds of the game.

(Appendix E)

Certain reactions were recorded during the participants’ experiences

which were then classified into the following categories:

Attempted to skip through the high score scene (5 times)

Experienced difficulty with controls/navigation (2 occurrences)

Felt they were getting trapped by enemies (6 occurrences)

Experienced desire for the warp gauge to automatically go to

the next question when filled (3 occurrences)

Experienced concern of warp gauge draining too fast in relation

to enemy spawning (2 occurrences)

Experienced confusion at the question, even with a hint (6

occurrences)

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Experienced desire to check game controls during gameplay (1

occurrences)

Offered content suggestions (2 occurrences)

For the most part, it appeared that participants of Build A were

enjoying themselves more than those of B. Their body language in general

was more focused on the game and there were less noticeable signs of

frustration from undesirable outcomes, such as answering a question

wrongly.

Due to this increased engagement, however, players were more often

prone to guessing the correct answer in Build A rather than consulting the

hints. This behavior is most notable in the lower levels of difficulty in which

there are only a few choices available to the player. The question asking

players why serving sizes are different for different foods is one notable

example in which the numeric data can support this behavior. Despite

having a similar pre-test correct response rate with participants in Build B

(Table 5-7 and Table 5-8, Question 5), there was no increase in

understanding of the question on post-test responses. The Build B sample,

on the other hand, saw an increase of two correct responses. In the game,

the reasoning for the correct response could be found by unlocking and

reading the hint in the pop up window. Due to the engagement of players,

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the participants in Build A were content to merely try the next viable answer

to see if that is correct despite suffering a score penalty, which may not

have been a strong enough deterrent to guessing in this implementation.

This observation serves to go against Nwadinigwe and Naibi’s idea of

three answers being the ideal number of different choices in a multiple

choice test. It may be in part due to the lack of a meaningful “grade” on

performance as well as the fast paced decision-making involved in the

game. In this instance, players appeared content to take the penalty in

Build A rather than to break the pacing of the game to check the hints,

unless the question was more difficult or had more choices. This reluctance

to break their flow is in direct relation to the “seductive details” that Fisch

warned about when designing educational games.

There are, however, instances in which the players of Build A

consulted the hints just about as often as Build B’s participants. One

instance is with the question asking participants why they should limit their

intake of certain dairy products. Participants had a one in four probability of

getting this question right through guessing. However, the in-game choices

were ambiguous enough to not display one or two answers above the rest.

Players in both builds incurred multiple penalties in both builds by

answering incorrectly. It is perhaps from this frustration that drove players

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in Build A to break their flow state and consult the hint window. Similar

results were observed with the question regarding the benefits to heart

health that salmon and blueberries required, however the complexity of the

hint did not effectively convey the answer to players of either build.

This ambiguity of answers was lacking in the game questions

regarding serving size. Players often guessed between two different

answers before getting a correct answer, which would imply that a single

penalty was an affordable price to maintain flow in the game without having

to resort to hints. Whereas players in Build B did not feel such a

compulsion to maintain the pacing of the game and found consulting hints

to be the more worthwhile option.

It is also worth noting that players often sought out a single correct

answer for the questions during play rather than multiple correct answers.

This may be due to the fact that the first two difficulty levels of the game

only present one correct answer and set a precedent of expectations for

higher levels. Only one response across both builds managed to name

both correct answers for a nutrient not typically found in fruits. Similarly,

none of the participant responses listed peas as an example of foods that

could fit into multiple food groups, but a large portion of responses from

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both builds changed their response to beans, which was the alternative

answer.

This behavior could stem from two factors: 1) the precedent set by

earlier gameplay limited the expectations of players of higher levels and 2)

there was a predisposition to select beans as the next viable answer due to

prior knowledge about nutrition. Generally speaking, peas are not as widely

known for their protein content and are commonly viewed as a member of

the vegetable food group.

The omission of this answer in player responses displays an

occurrence in which the participant’s bias in answering questions with prior

knowledge barred them from exploring new and unknown answers in this

game implementation. Although both beans and peas are considered

legumes, the bias of prior knowledge barred anybody from choosing the

lesser known answer in favor of something with which they were already

familiar. Thus it would have been appropriate to introduce more

differentiated answers in this case to encourage people to choose an

unfamiliar answer and learn that it is correct.

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5.5 Qualitative Survey Analysis

The goal of the qualitative survey was to acquire insights on the

participants’ experiences with a focus on content usefulness and value and

any increases in comprehension on the concepts of nutrition covered in the

game. (Appendix F) The survey consisted of two different concepts of

interest: the overall game experience and the educational content in the

game.

Users were asked to rate assorted statements based on the below

categories:

Perceived educational value

Presentation of material

Relevance of material

User enjoyment and satisfaction

Understanding of material

Confidence in applying the concepts in the future situations

Statements were rated along a five-point scale with one representing

“strongly disagree” and five representing “strongly agree.”

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Review of Overall Game Experience:

(Build A) The Overall Game Experience was:

1 2 3 4 5 Mean Response:

Clear and Easy to Understand

0 0 1 1 4 4.5

Interesting 0 0 1 2 3 4.33

Fun 0 0 1 3 2 4.17

Helpful to My Understanding of Nutrition

1 0 0 3 2 3.83

Relevant in My Understanding of Nutrition

1 0 0 2 3 4

Table 5-6: Opinions of Overall Game Experience for Build A

(Build B) The Overall Game Experience was:

1 2 3 4 5 Mean Response:

Clear and Easy to Understand

0 1 0 4 1 3.83

Interesting 1 0 1 3 1 3.5

Fun 1 0 1 4 0 3.33

Helpful to My Understanding of Nutrition

0 1 1 4 0 3.5

Relevant in My Understanding of Nutrition

0 1 1 3 1 3.67

Table 5-7: Opinions of Overall Game Experience for Build B

Players of Build A typically found the experience to be more fun and

interesting with mean ratings of 4.33 and 4.17 respectively for these

categories. Players of Build B rated the game an average of 3.5 for fun and

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3.33 for interesting, which is in line with the observations of players from

Build A having more fun with the game. However, this lower average was

brought down by one participant in Build B giving a rating of 1 in both

categories, otherwise the ratings would be more focused around a rating of

4, which is much closer to the majority opinion in Build A.

In a similar manner, one participant in each Build rated the

Helpfulness and Relevance of the game in regards to nutrition lower than a

3. Despite this, Build A still retains a slightly higher average ranking, with all

participants rating either a 4 or a 5, but Build B’s responses are more

focused around a 4 with one participant rating higher and one lower.

Game Mechanics:

Despite being virtually identical in design aside from the way

participants answered questions, Build A rated the clarity, helpfulness, and

relevance of the instructions window higher than Build B, which might

indicate that their negative experience from the game may or may not have

a negative influence on other qualitative answers. The “Interesting” and

“Fun” responses were quite similar on average, but Build B’s responses

were more scattered whereas Build A’s answers mostly made up of a 3 or

a 4 rating.

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(Build A) The Instructional “How to Play” Menu was:

1 2 3 4 5 Mean Response:

Clear and Easy to Understand

0 0 1 1 4 4.5

Interesting 0 0 3 2 1 3.67

Fun 0 0 3 3 0 3.5

Helpful to My Understanding of the Game

0 0 0 2 4 4.67

Relevant in Helping Me Apply My Knowledge in Game

0 1 0 1 4 4.33

Table 5-8: Opinions of Overall Usefulness of “How To Play” Menu for Build A

(Build B) The Instructional “How to Play” Menu was:

1 2 3 4 5 Mean Response:

Clear and Easy to Understand

1 0 1 3 1 3.5

Interesting 0 1 2 2 1 3.5

Fun 0 2 1 2 1 3.33

Helpful to My Understanding of the Game

0 1 2 2 1 3.5

Relevant in Helping Me Apply My Knowledge in Game

0 1 2 2 1 3.5

Table 5-9: Opinions of Overall Usefulness of “How to Play” Menu for Build B

Similar effects can be observed in the responses regarding the warp

gauge mechanic. Although the mechanic works the same in both cases,

players in Build B on average rated each of the “fun” and “helpful”

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categories about 1 point lower on average in comparison to Build A

response. Both found it similarly easy to understand and interesting, but the

collection and shooting mechanic made a difference in how participants

viewed the gauge as a contribution towards the fun of the game.

(Build A) The “Warp Gauge” mechanic was:

1 2 3 4 5 Mean Response:

Clear and Easy to Understand

0 0 2 2 2 4

Interesting 0 1 1 2 2 3.83

Fun 0 0 0 3 3 4.5

Helpful to My Understanding of Nutrition

0 1 1 1 3 4

Table 5-10: Opinions on the “Warp Gauge” Mechanic for Build A

(Build B)The “Warp Gauge” mechanic was:

1 2 3 4 5 Mean Response:

Clear and Easy to Understand

0 0 2 3 1 3.83

Interesting 0 0 3 3 0 3.5

Fun 0 1 3 1 1 3.33

Helpful to My Understanding of Nutrition

0 1 2 3 0 3.33

Table 5-11: Opinions on the “Warp Gauge” Mechanic for Build B

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Learning Comprehension:

Save for one participant in each build finding the game to be

disinteresting and not fun, ratings were relatively similar in regards to

understanding the material. It is worth noting that none of the participants in

Build B gave a score of 5 in the “Interesting” or “Fun” categories, which

helps to confirm previous observations that Build A participants may have a

higher innate interest in the topic of nutrition due to their increased

perceived knowledge on the topic.

Although participants in Build B outperformed participants in Build A

by question breakdown, half of the participants rated the “Helpful to

Understanding Nutrition” category a 3 in Build B while half of the

participants in Build A rated it a 5. This may be due to the effects of a less

engaging game experience as Sim, MacFarlane, and Read had observed

in their work, or perhaps the participants’ difference in innate interest in

nutrition influenced the results in such a way.

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(Build A) The Educational Content was:

1 2 3 4 5 Mean Response:

Clear and Easy to Understand

0 0 2 2 2 4

Easy to Control the Difficulty

0 0 1 2 3 4.33

Interesting 0 1 1 2 2 3.83

Fun 0 0 0 3 3 4.5

Helpful to My Understanding of Nutrition

0 1 1 1 3 4

Relevant in Helping Me to Apply Nutritional Knowledge in Future Situations

1 0 1 2 2 3.67

Table 5-12: Opinions on the Educational Content for Build A

(Build B) The Educational Content was:

1 2 3 4 5 Mean Response:

Clear and Easy to Understand

0 1 1 2 2 3.83

Easy to Control the Difficulty

1 0 1 3 1 3.5

Interesting 1 0 1 4 0 3.33

Fun 1 0 1 4 0 3.33

Helpful to My Understanding of Nutrition

1 0 3 1 1 3.17

Relevant in Helping Me to Apply Nutritional Knowledge in Future Situations

1 0 2 2 1 3.33

Table 5-13: Opinions on the Educational Content for Build A

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Further Observations:

Players in Build B ranked their enjoyment of the game to be lower

than Build A, which is consistent with playtest observations. However, their

lack of enjoyment may be caused by a multitude of different factors. Based

on ratings, players of Build B found the game’s mechanics somewhat more

difficult to understand, which may have led to some frustration when initially

playing the game. Additionally, they did not find the educational content to

be as interesting or useful as Build A’s participants. This may be in part due

to them having less background knowledge in nutrition, and, as previously

mentioned, less of an innate interest in nutrition than participants in Build A.

Despite these observations, participants in Build B did improve their

performance on individual questions more effectively than Build A’s

players, although Build B’s total score improvements were not as high. This

observation is similar to the findings of Sim, MacFarlane, and Read in

which participants rated the game with more separate educational content

(in this case, the shooting mechanics versus the more relevant collection

mechanics) as more educational. Such behavior may be due to an

inclination to partake in the “fun” elements of the game, while forgoing the

educational elements, which in this case would be guessing answers rather

than relying on hints to better understand the question.

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5.6 Design Observations:

Below are some of the main observations that were made over the

course of this study in regards to the educational design of this study:

Players tend to guess on questions with little answer variety rather

than learn from it while playing a game.

Players tend to seek assistance when all of the answers seem

ambiguous or unfamiliar because they do not want to incur multiple

penalties from guessing.

If there are two answers that appear to be correct, players are more

likely to guess and take the penalty than to check for hints since there

is a quick alternative.

If there are two correct answers and the player is familiar with one of

them, they will almost always choose the answer with which they are

familiar.

Text answers effectively get the point across for simplistic questions

with simple answers.

The hint system should be more streamlined so as to not be a jarring

experience to those playing the game.

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The relevance on in-game actions on learning from an educational

game is inconclusive.

In order to explain the final point, one must understand that

games are a subjective medium. While one may find the experience

enjoyable and educational, the other may not. There is no one size

fits all approach. There may be a stronger correlation in the case of

Build A in regards to improved total scores and more engaging

gameplay, but Build B had a stronger improvement on certain topics

based on the question breakdown. This makes it difficult to ascertain

which one of these builds is doing a better job of educating the

participants.

There are several confounding factors that lead to this

judgment. First of all, it appears that the players of Build A had a

greater interest in nutrition and, therefore, were more motivated to

play the game. Players of Build B did not share this interest and were

playing a subjectively less engaging game. On top of this, there were

also individuals who rated the game substantially lower than others in

the qualitative survey. The results may have been more consistent

should a larger sample have been observed in order to get a better

average reading on the behaviors of both builds. In any case, players

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were being subjected to concepts at a rather quick pace and their

comprehension of the content would have improved greatly should

the game have been supplemented with a lecture or other form of

traditional education.

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6: Conclusions

6.1 Research Conclusions

The objective of this study protocol was to assess the efficacy of

having in-game actions that are relevant to educational content.

Furthermore, should the game prove to be unengaging or ineffective in

teaching users, the secondary goal would be to observe where the

deficiencies lie with the design.

There is a concern of some bias in the demographic sample used to

test the application. Due to the one build’s sample having a higher

education and the other build’s sample having a stronger perceived

background in nutrition, the results of testing may be skewed by several

uncontrollable factors interacting with each other.

The content pre-and post-tests provide evidence that both

participants at least improved their comprehension of the content

somewhat, although some players did better than others.. For the most

part, the scores on the post-test show an increased comprehension of the

topics covered in the application. While this does not aid us in drawing

conclusions about a participant’s ability to apply this knowledge to their

daily diets, it does confirm that the application conveyed nutritional

87

concepts to the sample population. Additionally, this study aids us in

highlighting which concepts are more difficult to convey through this

particular approach (e.g. topics that require multiple responses).

When summarized, the observation notes provide several insights

upon which the design could be improved. There is a more positive

response in comprehension when questions are focused upon a specific

detail and don’t try to convey an overall concept to the player (e.g. limiting

fats, sodium, and sugar in the diet versus naming a nutrient not typically

present in fruits).

The qualitative survey data indicates that participants generally found

the game to be engaging and fun, despite a few disliking the overall

experience, which is reasonable due to the subjective nature of games. It is

inconclusive whether relevant in-game actions contributed to the sample’s

increased understanding of the subject material.

All in all, there was evidence pointing to the validity of teaching

material through an integrated video game approach which can be more

engaging to users in comparison to traditional learning. The presence of a

high score table to rank a player’s performance to others was not

necessarily of great interest to participants, perhaps due to the evolution of

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marking achievements in modern games. This feedback would suggest that

utilizing in-game actions that are relevant to the educational material does

not have a discernible effect on the ability of participants to learn from an

educational game.

6.2 Future Research Considerations

This study did not attempt to gauge any long-term learning benefits

from this approach to learning, nor did it assess a participant’s ability to

apply these concepts in real-world scenarios. While measuring a student’s

correct answers in a multiple choice format yields a rough estimate of a

user’s comprehension on the topic, the ability to assess a user’s

understanding of the topics is rudimentary at best. In order to gain a more

accurate assessment of a user’s learning from a game with a topic as

complex as nutrition, the design of the game would need to be more

complex and allow for a more open exploration of concepts beyond five

different choices. Additionally, the tracking of a player’s progress would

have to be more nuanced than a simple “score” number. In doing so, this

type of study could yield greater insights into the ways a player could learn

by playing a game.

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Appendix A: IRB Approval

90

Figure A-1: IRB Approval Image

91

Appendix B: Graphics and Screenshots

Figure 1-1: Shares of Active Applications on the Apple App Store

92

Figure 3-1: Example of Food Answers

Figure 3-2: Screenshot of Shooting Food Answers

93

Figure 3-3: Screenshot of Warp Gauge

Figure 3-4: Screenshot of Hint Window with Unlocked Hint

94

Figure 3-5: Swift Quiz Main Menu

Figure 3-6: How to Play Window

95

Figure 3-7: Heads Up Display during Gameplay

Figure 3-8: Ship Shield with One Hit Left

96

Figure 3-9: High Score Table

Figure 4-1: Weapon Definitions Makeup

97

Fig 4-2 Quiz Enemy Class Makeup

Fig 4-3: Enemy Class Hierarchy

98

Figure 5-1: Demographic Age Chart

Figure 5-2: Demographic Education Data

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

18-20

21-29

30-39

Skipped

What is Your Age?

Build B Build A

0 1 2 3 4

Less Than High School

High School Diploma

Some College

Associate's Degree

Bachelor's Degree

Graduate Degree and Above

Skipped

What is the Highest Level of School that You Have Completed?

Build B Build A

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Figure 5-3: Chart of Participant’s Claimed Background in Nutrition

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5

Very Low

Somewhat Low

Average

Somewhat High

Very High

Skipped

How Much Background Would You Say You Have in Nutrition?

Build B Build A

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Appendix C: Demographic Survey Data

What is Your Age? Build A (Number / Percent)

Build B (Number/Percent)

18-20 1 / 16.67% 1 / 16.67%

21-29

4 / 66.67% 5 / 83.33%

30-39

1 / 16.67% 0 / 0%

Skipped 0 / 0% 0 / 0%

Total 6 6 Table C-1: Demographic Age Data

What is the highest level of school that you have completed?

Build A (Number / Percent)

Build B (Number/Percent)

Less Than High School 0 / 0% 0 / 0%

High School Diploma 1 / 16.67% 0 / 0%

Some College 3 50% 1 / 16.67%

Associate’s Degree 0 / 0% 1 / 16.67%

Bachelor’s Degree 1 / 16.67% 3 / 50%

Graduate Degree and Above

1 / 0% 1 / 16.67%

Skipped 0 / 0% 0 / 0%

Total 6 6

Table C-2: Demographic Education Data

How much background would you say you have in nutrition?

Build A (Number / Percent)

Build B (Number/Percent)

Very Low 0 / 0% 2 / 33.33%

Somewhat Low 1 / 16.67% 1 / 16.67%

Average 2 / 33.33% 3 / 50%

Somewhat High 2 / 33.33% 0 / 0%

Very High 1 / 16.67% 0 / 0%

Skipped 0 / 0% 0 / 0%

Total 6 6 Table C-3: Participant’s Claimed Background Knowledge of Nutrition

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Have you had any experience playing video games?

Build A (Number / Percent)

Build B (Number/Percent)

Yes 6 / 100% 6 / 100%

No 0 / 0% 0 / 0%

Skipped 0 / 0% 0 / 0%

Total 6 6 Table 5-1: Participant’s Background Experience with Video Games

Have you had experience playing a “Shoot ‘em Up”

game?

Build A (Number / Percent)

Build B (Number/Percent)

Yes 5 / 83.33% 6 / 100%

No 1 / 16/67% 0 / 0%

Skipped 0 / 0% 0 / 0%

Total 6 6 Table 5-2: Participant’s Experience with the “Shoot ‘em Up” Genre

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Appendix D: Pre-Test and Post-Test Data

Question Example of Accepted Answer/s:

What is the difference between energy-

rich and nutrient-rich foods? Can one

food be both?

Energy-rich foods are high in carbohydrates

and sugars. Nutrient-rich foods are high in

nutrients. Yes, one food can be both.

What is an example of additional calories

for a serving of fruit?

Any food with added sugars, fats, or sodium.

Or underestimating densely packed servings

like juice or dried fruits

Why should you limit your intake of

certain dairy products?

Some dairy products have a high fat content.

What are 3 nutrients that should be

limited in your diet?

Fats, sodium, and sugars/carbohydrates

Why are some servings of food larger

than others for a similar amount of

nutrients (e.g. 1 serving spinach vs 1

serving green beans)?

Some foods are more airy/fluffy than other

foods which are more densely packed.

Not all foods are made of the same nutrients.

Which food groups can provide a good

source of protein?

Vegetables, Meat, Dairy, and Grains

103

Provide an example of a food that can fit

into more than one food group.

Any member of the legumes subgroup (e.g

beans, peas, lentils, etc). Avocados, Nuts, Any

dish that mixes two foodgroups.

What nutrient is not added back to

enriched grain products?

Dietary Fiber

Why are salmon and blueberries both

beneficial to heart health?

Salmon has healthy fats and blueberries have

antioxidants.

What is a nutrient not typically found in

fruits?

Protein, B12

Table D-1: List of Knowledge Test Questions and Example Answers

*Correct Answer Notes:

1: If a question was answered with only one correct answer and required 2 or 3 things,

the question was marked as wrong.

Build A Pre

Build A Post

Change in Score

Build B Pre

Build B Post

Change in Score

4 3 -1 7 9 +2

4 6 +2 2 3 +1

4 7 +3 2 6 +4

6 7 +1 2 6 +4

0 4 +4 6 6 0

4 6 +2 3 2 -1

Mean:

3.67 5.5 +1.83 3.67 5.33 +1.67

STD Deviation:

STD Deviation

1.58 1.89 Table 5-3: Participant Pre-Test and Post-Test Scores

104

Build A Performance by Question Breakdown

Questionnaire

Pre-test Number of

Correct Responses

Post-test Number of

Correct Responses

Change in Correct

Responses

Notes/ Observations

What is the difference between energy-rich and nutrient-rich foods?

5 4 -1 Decrease was from a less descriptive wording of the answer.

What is an example of additional calories for a serving of fruit?

4 4 0 Answer was changed to additional syrup/sugars in 3 cases.

Why should you limit your intake of certain dairy products?

1 3 +2 More mentioned fat in their answer. Possibly due to hint

What are 3 nutrients that should be limited in your diet?

0 1 +1 Increase of 1 partially correct response.

Why are some servings of food larger than others for a similar amount of nutrients (E.g. 1 serving of spinach versus 1 serving of green beans)?

3 3 0 Hint did not help players.

Which food groups can serve as a good source of protein?

1 4 +3 Answers were more varied

due to answers to in

game questions.

105

Provide an example of a food that can fit into more than one food group.

5 5 0 2 changed answers to

beans.

What nutrient is not added back to enriched grain products?

1 3 +2 Text answer

Why are salmon and blueberries both beneficial to heart health?

0 0 0 0 to 4 partially correct responses from Pre- to Post-test.

What is a nutrient not typically found in fruits?

2 4 +2 Text Answer

Mean Change +0.9 Table 5-4: Build A Performance by Question Breakdown

Build B Performance by Question Breakdown

Questionnaire Pre-test Number of

Correct Responses

Post-test Number of

Correct Responses

Change in Correct

Responses

Notes

What is the difference between energy-rich and nutrient-rich foods?

4 3 -1 2 answers completely changed. Third was similarly vague

What is an example of additional calories for a serving of fruit?

1 4 +3 2 jam and 2 sugar in post-test. Only one answered with juice in pre-test, none in post.

106

Why should you limit your intake of certain dairy products?

2 5 +3 More mentioned fat due to provided hint.

What are 3 nutrients that should be limited in your diet?

1 1 0 3 to 4 partial correct answers.

Why are some servings of food larger than others for a similar amount of nutrients (E.g. 1 serving of spinach versus 1 serving of green beans)?

2 4 +2 Players who

skipped answered correctly due to hints.

Which food groups can serve as a good source of protein?

4 3 -1 Answer was

simplified to meats.

Provide an example of a food that can fit into more than one food group.

3 6 +3 3 answers changed to beans, 0 to peas

What nutrient is not added back to enriched grain products?

1 5 +4 Text Answers in game.

Why are salmon and blueberries both beneficial to heart health?

0 0 0 1 to 3 partially correct answers

What is a nutrient not typically found in fruits?

3 6 +3 Text Answer

Mean Change +1.6 Table 5-5: Build B Performance by Question Breakdown

107

Knowledge Pre-Test Performance Comparison

Knowledge Pre-test Questionnaire

Build A (Correct /

Percentage)

Build B (Correct /

Percentage)

Skipped (In A / In B)

Difference

Notes

What is the difference between energy-rich and nutrient-rich foods?

5 / 83.33% 4 / 66.67% 0 1 A had 1 partial correct.

B had 1 partial

correct.

What is an example of additional calories for a serving of fruit?

4 / 66.67% 1 / 16.67% 1 / 1 3 Counted cool-whip and sugar as correct

Why should you limit your intake of certain dairy products?

1 / 16.67% 2 / 33.33% 1 / 1 -1 Mentioning fat was counted as correct.

Jokes were not.

What are 3 nutrients that should be limited in your diet?

0 / 0% 1 / 16.67% 2 / 1 -1 A had 2 partial correct responses.

B had 3 partial

correct responses.

Why are some servings of food larger than others for a similar amount of nutrients (E.g. 1 serving of spinach versus 1 serving of green beans)?

3 / 50% 2 / 33.33% 2 / 2 1 One response in build B was close to being correct.

Which food groups can serve as a good source of protein?

1 / 16.67% 4 / 66.67% 0 / 0 -3 Counted correct if 2 or more groups were provided. All answers were partially correct by providing one group.

Provide an example of a food that can fit into more than one food group.

5 / 83.33% 3 / 50% 0 / 0 2 FDA considers eggs part of the protein group.

What nutrient is not added back to enriched grain products?

1 / 16.67% 1 / 16.67% 3 / 3 0

Why are salmon and blueberries both beneficial to heart health?

0 / 0% 0 / 0% 2 / 3 0 Build B has 1 partial correct response.

What is a nutrient not typically found in fruits?

2 / 33.33% 3 / 50% 2 / 1 -1

108

Average Overall Score 3.67 2.1 Average Difference

1.57 Build A had 1 outlier score of 0. Build B had 2 higher and 4 lower scores.

Table D-2: Knowledge Pre-Test Performance Comparison

Knowledge Post-Test Performance Comparison

Knowledge Post-test Questionnaire

Build A (Correct /

Percentage)

Build B (Correct /

Percentage)

Skipped (In A / In

B)

Difference

Notes

How are energy-rich and nutrient-rich foods different? Can one food be both? (Q8 in post)

4 / 66.67% 3 / 50% 1 / 0 1 Build A has 1 partially correct

response.

Build B has 1 partially correct

response.

Name an example of additional calories for a serving of fruit. (Q9 in post)

4 / 66.67% 4 / 66.67% 1 / 0 0

What is a reason you should limit your intake of certain dairy products? (Q7 in post)

3 / 50% 5 / 83.33% 0 / 0 -2 Mentioning fat was counted as correct.

Fat was in the hint for the question.

Name 3 nutrients that should be limited in your diet. (Q10 in post)

1 / 16.67% 1 / 16.67% 1 / 0 0 Build A has 1 partially correct

response.

Build B has 4 partially correct

responses.

Why do some serving sizes differ for a similar amount of nutrients (E.g. 1 serving of peanut butter versus 1 serving of steak)? (Q2 in post)

3 / 50% 4 / 66.67% 1 / 0 -1 Mentioning nutrient content/density was counted as correct.

Many responses

stated caloric differences as the answers, which is partially correct.

A had 1 partially

correct response.

109

B had 2 partially correct responses.

Which food groups can serve as a good source of protein? (Q1 in post)

4 / 66.67% 3 / 50% 0 / 0 1 Mentioning 2 or more groups was counted as correct.

Name a food that can be considered as a member of more than one food group. (Q3 in post)

5 / 83.33% 6 / 100% 0 / 0 -1 Half of both A and B responded with beans from the game.

Name the nutrient that is not added back to enriched grain products during processing. (Q4 in post)

3 / 50% 5 / 83.33% 2 / 0 -2

Which nutrients in salmon and blueberries are beneficial to heart health? (Q5 in post)

0 / 0% 0 / 0% 0 / 1 0 Build A has 4 partially correct

answers.

Build B has 3 partially correct

answers.

Name a nutrient not typically found in fruits. (Q6 in post)

4 / 66.67% 6 / 100% 1 / 0 -2 Build B had 1 response with both

correct in-game answers.

Average Total Score 5.5 5.33 Average Score Difference

.167

Table D-3: Knowledge Post-Test Performance Comparison

*(Questions in the post-test comparison table are rearranged to be in the same order as

the pre-test questions for ease of comparison)

110

Appendix E: Participants’ Individual Responses and

Observation Notes

Knowledge Pre-test Open Responses:

Total Scores:

Build A: 4, 4, 4, 6, 0, 4

Build B: 7, 2, 2, 2, 6, 3

1: What is the difference between energy-rich and nutrient-rich foods?

Build A:

1: Onehas ahigher carbohydrate count and the other is vitamin rich. Yes it

could be both.

2: Energy rich food contains calories, where nutrient rich food contains

vitamins.

3: calories vs. minerals & essentials? Yes

4: Nutrient-rich foods are foods that contain a lot of nutrients. Energy-rich

foods are foods that contain a lot of calories. Yes, certain foods can be

both.

5: yes

6: Energy rich food has high calories where as nutrient rich food has high

nutrients. A food can be both

Build B:

1: Energy rich foods have lots of calories and nutrient rich foods have lots

of nutrients. Yes.

2: I suppose energy rich foods have more carbohydrates, while nutrient

rich foods are high in all the categories. Yes, an energy-rich food can be

nutrient-rich.

3: Energy relating is b vitamin rich while nutrient rich is determinant of

4: nutrients don’t all provide lots of energy and not all energy rich foods

are high in nutrients.one food can be both.

111

5: Energy-rich foods are foods with a lot of energy relative to their size.

Nutrient-rich has a lot of nutrients in every calorie of food.

6: yes

2: What is an example of additional calories for a serving of fruit?

Build A:

1: A topping or side you have along with your fruit

2: sugar containing syrups

3: cool whip on it?

4: That would be simply over the number of recommended calories of the

serving

5: no idea

6: Honey

Build B:

1: juice

2: No idea!

3: Omega 3s

4: yogurt

5: Eating more fruit than the daily specified intake

6: apple

3: Why should you limit your intake of certain dairy products?

Build A:

1: Just take a look at Wisconsin. Go ahead, look.

2: to avoid constipation?

3: ?

4: Dairy can be high in fat

5: to gain weight

112

6: body needs only certain amount of nutrients from dairy products. Taking

excess would lead to over nutrition

Build B:

1: It’s got a lot of fat

2: No idea!

3: Casien

4: too much of any food type can be bad

5: It can be too fattening.

6: you’ll get sick

4: What are 3 nutrients that should be limited in your diet?

Build A:

1: potassium, copper, iron

2: glucose dextrose, and maltose

3: ?

4: Saturated fat, sodium, and cholesterol should be limited

5: ?

6: Sodium, Potassium, Iodine

Build B:

1: fats, carbs, and salt

2: Fats, sugar and carbohydrates

3: Saturated fats, carbohydrates, protein

4: n/a

5: Cholesterol, carbs, some fats

6: Vitamin A, Iron, Zinc

5: Why are some servings of food larger than others for a similar

amount of nutrients (E.g. 1 serving of spinach versus 1 serving of

green beans)?

113

Build A:

1: They don’t contain the same amount of nutrients

2: I have no idea….

3: they are not all made of the exact same thing

4: Different foods vary in energy-content and nutrient-content.

5: no idea

6: They have high calories

Build B:

1: pass

2: due to less concentration of nutrients in one type of food

3: 1 serving of beef v 1 serving of pork

4: n/a

5: Serving sizes are different based on the amount of nutrients, protein,

and fats in a food

6: nutrients vs starches

6: Which food groups can serve as a good source of protein?

Build A:

1: Meat

2: nuts

3: meats

4: Meat

5: meat

6: Fish, Beans, tofu

Build B:

1: meats, beans

2: Meats

3: Meats, nuts….

114

4: meat

5: Vegetables, beans, grains, meats

6: meats, beans

7: Provide an example of a food that can fit into more than one food

group.

Build A:

1: Sushi

2: Pizza?

3: tofu

4: legumes

5: eggs

6: chick peas

Build B:

1: nuts

2: Chocolate

3: Penitentiary butter

4: smoothie

5: Nuts

6: Kale

8: What nutrient is not added back to enriched grain products?

Build A:

1: Iodine?

2: No idea

3: ?

4: Fiber

5: ?

115

6: carbs

Build B:

1: pass

2: No idea!

3: B12

4: n/a

5: Fibers

6: starch

9: Why are salmon and blueberries both beneficial to heart health?

Build A:

1: They are considered superfoods, very high in nutrients

2: Natural oils?

3: ?

4: They lower the body’s cholesterol

5: ?

6: They contain protein

Build B:

1: pass

2: No idea!

3: Protien

4: n/a

5: They can lower your chance of heart disease

6: omega 3’s

10: What is a nutrient not typically found in fruits?

Build A:

1: omega 3s

116

2: protein

3: ?

4: Protein

5: ?

6: Sodium

Build B:

1: protein

2: No idea!

3: Fats

4: protein

5: Minerals

6: vitamin B12

Knowledge Post-Test Open Responses:

Total Scores:

Build A: 3, 6, 7, 7, 4, 6

Build B: 9, 3, 6, 6, 6, 2

1: Which food groups can serve as a good source of protein?

Build A:

1: Nuts

2: meat, beans, eggs

3: Meat Poultry, seafood, beans, and nuts are good sources of protein

4: Meat, dairy, and nuts.

5: eggs

6: meat, cheese

117

Build B:

1: meats, beans, dairy

2: Meats

3: Meats, soy, fish

4: Meat, milk, and seafood

5: Dairy

6: meats

2: Why do some serving sizes differ for a similar amount of nutrients

(E.g. 1 serving of peanut butter versus 1 serving of steak)?

Build A:

1: they don’t have the same nutreint content

2: Fat content

3: This is due to nutrient density

4:.The content of fat, sugar, or other are different.

5: ?

6: because some foods are more calories dense

Build B:

1: Some are more concentrated in nutrients

2: They have different concentration of nutrients

3: Different micro and macro nutrient ratios for each serving

4: They contain different amounts of calories. Servings are based on

caloric-intake.

5: Nutrient intake

6: amount of calories

3: Name a food that can be considered as a member of more than one

food group.

Build A:

1: sushi

118

2: bean

3: Beans

4: Legumes can be counted in the vegetable of protein food groups

5: Pizza

6: eggs

Build B:

1: beans

2: beans

3: Avocado

4: Beans

5: Peanut Butter

6: kale

4: Name the nutrient that is not added back to enriched grain

products during processing?

Build A:

1: Protien

2: Fiber

3: Fiber

4:.I really don’t know

5: ?

6: Fiber

Build B:

1: fiber

2: Fiber

3: Fiber

4: Fiber

5: Fiber

6: salt

119

5: Which nutrients in salmon and blueberries are beneficial to heart

health?

Build A:

1: omega 3

2: omega 3

3: omega-3

4:.Salmon and blueberries are considered as superfoods. These

superfoods lower your cholesterol, keeps the blood from clotting, and

relaxes and dilates the arteries.

5: Vitamin D

6: antioxidants

Build B:

1: antioxidants

2: no idea!

3: Blood-thinning trans fats

4: antioxidants

5: Helps stop heart disease

6: omega 3’s

6: Name a nutrient not typically found in fruits.

Build A:

1: omega3

2: Protien

3: protein

4:.Protein

5: Protein

6: ?

Build B:

1: proteins

120

2: Proteins

3: Protein

4: Protein

5: Vitamin B12

6: protein, Vitamin B12

7: What is a reason you should limit your intake of certain dairy

products?

Build A:

1: anything in excess can be bad

2: To avoid constipation

3: limit saturated fat

4:.Certain dairy products should be limited because some of them are

high in fat.

5: To much dairy can lead to constipation and bad cholesterol

6: many of them are calories and fat dense

Build B:

1: It’s got a lot of fat

2: they may have high concentration of fats

3: To prevent from getting fat

4: So you don’t become fat

5: Fattening

6: you’ll be sick

8: How are energy-rich and nutrient-rich foods different? Can one

food be both?

Build A:

1: one has high carbs, the other has high nutrients… yes one could be

both

2: High energy foods contain calories, where nutrient rich foods contain

vitamins. Yes, one food can be both.

121

3: Empty calories. Yes

4:.Energy-rich foods contain a lot of calories. Nutrient-rich foods contain a

lot of nutrients. Yes, one food can be both.

5: ?

6: Energy rich foods are usually high caloric in comparision to nutrient rich

foods. Yes one food can be both.

Build B:

1: Energy rich foods have lots of calories, nutrient rich foods have lots of

nutrients. Yes.

2: energy rich foods have higher concentration of fats, & carbohydrates

than nutrient-rich foods, which have high concentration of all the nutrients.

Yes!

3: Energy rich are due to calories that burn, fueling the fire of the body;

nutrients support other functions

4: Energy rich means they stimulate metabolism and nutrients are for

support.

5: Yes, one food can be both. Energy-rich is food that has a lot of calories

for its serving size. Nutrient-rich is how many nutrients it has per calorie.

6: yes, cheese.

9: Name an example of additional calories for a serving of fruit.

Build A:

1: cottage cheese

2: Sugar based syrups

3: An example of additional calories for a serving fruit is jam.

4:.Canned fruit is often suspended in a sugar water or syrup

5: ?

6: any fruit that is fried or with added sugars

Build B:

1: fruit jam

2: fruit jam

122

3: Sugars

4: Sugars

5: 1 whole grapefruit

6: apple

10: Name 3 nutrients that should be limited in your diet.

Build A:

1: copper, iron, or potassium

2: Lactose, dextrose, and maltose

3: Saturated fat, sodium, and cholesterol should be limited in the diet

4:.potassium, fiber, lactose

5: ?

6: salt, fat, and sugar

Build B:

1: fats, carbs, salt

2: carbohydrates, fats, and sugar!

3: Carbs, fats, calories

4: Fats, carbohydrates, starch

5: Carbs, Fats, Oils

6: vitamin a, c, zinc

Observation Notes:

Attempted to skip through the high score scene (5 times)

Experienced difficulty with controls/navigation (2 occurrences)

Felt they were getting trapped by enemies (6 occurrences)

123

Experienced desire for the warp gauge to automatically go to

the next question when filled (3 occurrences)

Experienced concern of warp gauge draining too fast in relation

to enemy spawning (2 occurrences)

Experienced confusion at the question, even with a hint (6

occurrences)

Experienced desire to check game controls during gameplay (1

occurrences)

Offered content suggestions (2 occurrences)

124

Appendix F: Qualitative Survey Data

Each answer is on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being strongly disagree and 5

being strongly agree

The Instructional “How to Play” Menu was:

Build A:

1 2 3 4 5 Mean Response:

Clear and Easy to Understand

0 0 1 1 4 4.5

Interesting 0 0 3 2 1 3.67

Fun 0 0 3 3 0 3.5

Helpful to My Understanding of the Game

0 0 0 2 4 4.67

Build B:

1 2 3 4 5 Mean Response:

Clear and Easy to Understand

1 0 1 3 1 3.5

Interesting 0 1 2 2 1 3.5

Fun 0 2 1 2 1 3.33

Helpful to My Understanding of the Game

0 1 2 2 1 3.5

Relevant in Helping Me Apply My Knowledge in Game

0 1 2 2 1 3.5

125

The Educational Content was:

Build A:

1 2 3 4 5 Mean Response:

Clear and Easy to Understand

0 0 2 2 2 4

Easy to Control the Difficulty

0 0 1 2 3 4.33

Interesting 0 1 1 2 2 3.83

Fun 0 0 0 3 3 4.5

Helpful to My Understanding of Nutrition

0 1 1 1 3 4

Relevant in Helping Me to Apply Nutritional Knowledge in Future Situations

1 0 1 2 2 3.67

Build B:

1 2 3 4 5 Mean Response:

Clear and Easy to Understand

0 1 1 2 2 3.83

Easy to Control the Difficulty

1 0 1 3 1 3.5

Interesting 1 0 1 4 0 3.33

Fun 1 0 1 4 0 3.33

Helpful to My Understanding of Nutrition

1 0 3 1 1 3.17

126

Relevant in Helping Me to Apply Nutritional Knowledge in Future Situations

1 0 2 2 1 3.33

The “Warp Gauge” mechanic was:

Build A:

1 2 3 4 5 Mean Response:

Clear and Easy to Understand

0 0 2 2 2 4

Interesting 0 1 1 2 2 3.83

Fun 0 0 0 3 3 4.5

Helpful to My Understanding of Nutrition

0 1 1 1 3 4

Build B:

1 2 3 4 5 Mean Response:

Clear and Easy to Understand

0 0 2 3 1 3.83

Interesting 0 0 3 3 0 3.5

Fun 0 1 3 1 1 3.33

Helpful to My Understanding of Nutrition

0 1 2 3 0 3.33

127

The Overall Game Experience was:

Build A:

1 2 3 4 5 Mean Response:

Clear and Easy to Understand

0 0 1 1 4 4.5

Interesting 0 0 1 2 3 4.33

Fun 0 0 1 3 2 4.17

Helpful to My Understanding of Nutrition

1 0 0 3 2 3.83

Relevant in My Understanding of Nutrition

1 0 0 2 3 4

Build B:

1 2 3 4 5 Mean Response:

Clear and Easy to Understand

0 1 0 4 1 3.83

Interesting 1 0 1 3 1 3.5

Fun 1 0 1 4 0 3.33

Helpful to My Understanding of Nutrition

0 1 1 4 0 3.5

Relevant in My Understanding of Nutrition

0 1 1 3 1 3.67

128

Appendix G: Swift Quiz Question Bank

*Please Note: Bold Italic answers are the correct answers for each

question.

Level 1:

1: Which of these foods is considered energy-dense?

0: Apple 1: Peanut Butter 2: Fish

Source:

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/nutrient-dense-vs-nonnutrient-dense-

2716.html

Hint: Energy-dense foods are high in carbs and/or fat, which your body

uses for energy.

2: Which of these foods is both nutrient-dense and energy-dense?

0: Cheese 1: Lettuce 2: Donut

Source:

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/nutrient-dense-vs-nonnutrient-dense-

2716.html

Hint: Energy-dense foods are high in carbohydrates or fats and are not

necessarily healthy.

3: A healthy eating pattern limits eating which of the following?

0: Olive Oil 1: Salt 2: Bread

Source:

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-

2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf - p 17

Hint: Moderate amounts of unsaturated fats and carbohydrates are

beneficial to your health.

129

4: Based on a 2,000 calorie diet, how many servings of vegetables should be

eaten daily?

0: 4 cups 1: 1.5 cups 2: 2.5 cups

Source:

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-

2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf - p: 37

Hint: We should eat roughly half as many vegetables as we eat grains,

which is around 6 servings.

5: Which of these foods is nutrient-dense?

0: Muffin 1: Chips 2: Sprouted Bread

Source:

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/nutrient-dense-vs-nonnutrient-dense-

2716.html

Hint: Why is it called junk food?

Level 2:

1: Which serving style of fruit should be limited in your diet?

0: Frozen Cherries 1: Canned Peaches 2: Fruit Jam

3: Fresh Fruit

Source:

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-

2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf p. 40

Hint: You don’t need additional calories to enjoy the sweetness of a fruit.

2: Which serving style of dairy should be limited in your diet?

0: Coffee and Whipped Cream 1: Skim Milk and cereal 2: Yogurt

3: Club Sandwich

Source:

130

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-

2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf p. 42

Hint: One of these has significantly more fat than the others.

3: Which serving style of grains should be limited in your diet?

0: Oatmeal 1: Pancakes w/ Butter

2: Whole Wheat Sandwich 3: Rice and Curry

Source:

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-

2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf p. 41

Hint: Eating one of these will net you a lot of additional calories.

4: Which serving style of vegetables should be limited in your diet?

0: Baked Potato 1: Steamed Broccoli and Cheese 2: Chili

3: Onion Rings

Source:

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-

2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf p. 40

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/food/deep-fried-vegetables

Hint: Oils cooked at a high temperature can change them from good fats

to bad fats.

5: Which serving style of proteins should be limited in your diet?

0: Nuts 1: Tofu 2: Salami 3: Fish

Source:

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-

2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf p. 42

131

Hint: Excess fats, carbs, and ______ are not part of a healthy diet.

Processed protein sources generally have a large amount of this.

Level 3:

1: Which of these servings of grain is roughly equivalent in nutrition to 1 cup of

oatmeal?

0: 2 slices of bread 1: 1 cup of cereal 2: 1 slice of bread

3: ½ cup of rice 4: 1 cup of granola

Source:

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-

2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf p. 37

Hint: Some of these foods are more airy than others; you may have to eat

more of them to acquire a similar nutritional value.

2: Which of these vegetable servings is roughly equivalent in nutrition to 1 cup of

raw spinach?

0: 1 cup of beans 1: ½ cup of asparagus 2: 1 cup of lettuce

3: 2 cups of broccoli 4: ¼ cup of Brussel Sprouts

Source:

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-

2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf p. 37

Hint: Some of these servings may be more concentrated than others.

3: Which of these fruit serving styles can most significantly contribute to extra

calories?

0: Dried Fruit 1: Fresh Fruit 2: Frozen Fruit

3: Canned Peach 4: Fruit Juice

Source:

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-

2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf p: 40

132

Hint: Some of these servings may be more concentrated than others.

4: Which of these dairy servings can most significantly contribute to extra

calories?

0: Yogurt 1: Cottage Cheese 2: Whole Milk

3: Cheese 4: Light Cream Cheese

Source:

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-

2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf p: 42

Hint: Fat is a good source of energy in moderation.

5: Which of these protein servings is equal to 2 spoons of peanut butter?

0: 1 Egg 1: 4 oz of fish 2: ½ oz of nuts 3: 6 oz of steak

4: ½ cup of beans

Source:

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-

2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf p. 37

Hint: Some of these servings may be more concentrated than others. A

spoon of peanut butter is equivalent to 1 serving.

Level 4:

1: Which of these foods is NOT a good source of protein?

0: Peas 1: Romaine Lettuce 2: Milk 3: Steak 4: Apples 5: Rice

Source:

https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/3001?fgcd=&manu=&lfacet=&for

mat=&count=&max=50&offset=&sort=default&order=asc&qlookup=11251

&ds=&qt=&qp=&qa=&qn=&q=&ing=

133

http://depts.washington.edu/pku/PDFs2/ModifyingRecipesFoodList.p

df

Hint: The foods not high in protein are energy-dense instead.

2: Which of these foods can fit into more than one food group?

0: Cheese 1: Peanut Butter 2: Beans 3: Rice 4: Cherries

5: Peas

Source:

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-

2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf p. 42

Hint: Think about what these foods can offer your body nutritionally.

3: Which of these nutrients are NOT generally found in high concentrations in

fruits?

0: Vitamin C 1: Protein 2: Dietary Fiber 3: Potassium

4: Folic Acid 5: Vitamin B12

Source:

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-

2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf p: 42

Hint: Vegans and Vegetarians typically have to get “creative” to get

enough of this in their diets.

4: Which of these foods is NOT a good source of calcium?

0: Salmon, Canned 1: Tofu 2: Cheese 3: Kiwi 4: Asparagus

5: Spinach

Sources:

https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/2253?fgcd=&manu=&lfacet=&for

mat=&count=&max=50&offset=&sort=default&order=asc&qlookup=09148

&ds=&qt=&qp=&qa=&qn=&q=&ing=

134

http://www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy-eating/nutrition/article/salmon-

whats-can

https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/5014?fgcd=&manu=&lfacet=&for

mat=&count=&max=50&offset=&sort=default&order=asc&qlookup=16427

&ds=&qt=&qp=&qa=&qn=&q=&ing=

https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/2824?fgcd=&manu=&lfacet=&for

mat=&count=&max=50&offset=&sort=default&order=asc&qlookup=11011

&ds=&qt=&qp=&qa=&qn=&q=&ing=

https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/3167?fgcd=&manu=&lfacet=&for

mat=&count=&max=50&offset=&sort=default&order=asc&qlookup=11457

&ds=&qt=&qp=&qa=&qn=&q=&ing=

Hint: One food group is typically low in calcium content while another food

group has “planty” of subgroups that do not typically contain high amounts

of calcium.

5: Which of these foods is NOT a good source of dietary fiber?

0: Beans 1: Bagel 2: Raspberries 3: Bran Cereal 4: Tofu 5: Peas

Sources:

https://www.ghc.org/html/public/specialties/gastroenterology/colon-diet

http://greatist.com/health/surprising-high-fiber-foods

Hint: Dietary Fiber is not one of the nutrients added back to nutrient-

enriched products.

Level 5:

1: Which of these vegetable groups contains the highest amount of Vitamin A?

0: Dark Green (spinach) 1: Starchy (Potato)

2: Legumes (Beans and Peas) 3: Red and Orange (Peppers)

4: Other (Onions/Cabbage) 5:Purple (Eggplant)

135

Source:

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-

2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf p: 40

Hint: The high amounts of Beta ‘Carot’ene are responsible for giving

these vegetables their color.

2: Which of these foods in excess may contribute the most to a higher risk of

heart disease?

0: Salmon 1:Oranges 2: Steak 3: Olive Oil 4: Blueberries 5: Tofu

Sources:

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-

2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf p. 43-44

http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20720182,00.html#blueberries-11

Hint: Healthy fats and antioxidants are a great way to keep your heart

healthy.

3: Which of these nutrients is typically found in fortified dairy products?

0: Dietary Fiber 1: Magnesium 2: Phosphorus 3: Iron

4: Vitamin D 5: Protein

Sources:

https://dairygood.org/content/2015/why-is-vitamin-d-added-to-milk

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-

2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf p: 42

Hint: This nutrient is added to aid in the absorption of calcium to help

prevent bone Disease. Milk is the most common product that does this.

4: Which of these nutrients is NOT typically added back to enriched grains?

0: Thiamin 1: Riboflavin 2: Iron 3: Niacin 4: Folic Acid 5: Fiber

136

Source:

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/HealthyEating/HealthyDie

tGoals/Whole-Grains-and-Fiber_UCM_303249_Article.jsp

Hint: Eating a lot of enriched grains instead of whole grains may make it

more difficult to go to the bathroom.

5: Which of these foods does NOT help keep you hydrated?

0: Bagel 1: Banana 2: Potato 3: Milk 4: Spinach 5: Canned Tuna

Sources:

http://blog.foodnetwork.com/healthyeats/2012/07/19/staying-hydrated-

electrolytes-101/

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/tc/low-potassium-foods-topic-

overview#1

Hint: Potassium, Calcium, and Sodium are electrolytes that are also

present in sports drinks.

137

Appendix H: Asset Credits and Sources

Music Composer: Alex Ball

Sound Effects:

Crunch Sound -

http://www.freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/332407/

- All other sounds were created in Ableton Live.

Background Image Sources:

Food Answer Background –

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Veil_Nebula_-

_NGC6960.jpg

Menu Element Source Images:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Crab_Nebula.jp

g

- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Star-

forming_region_S106_(captured_by_the_Hubble_Space_Telesco

pe).jpg

138

- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Star-

forming_region_S106_(captured_by_the_Hubble_Space_Telesco

pe).jpg

- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/M82_Chand

ra_HST_Spitzer.jpg

Food Answer Image Sources:

Level 1:

Q - 1:

Apple –

https://static.pexels.com/photos/39803/pexels-photo-39803.jpeg

Peanut butter -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Peanut_butter_

14juni09_001.jpg

- https://pixabay.com/p-350099/?no_redirect

139

Fish/Salmon -

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/140000/nahled/isolated-

salmon.jpg

Q-2:

Cheese -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/NCI_swiss_che

ese.jpg

Lettuce - http://www.picserver.org/pictures/lettuce02-lg.jpg

Donut - https://pixabay.com/p-522440/?no_redirect

Q-3:

Olive Oil -

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5792/21959161494_46886fb8cd_b.jpg

140

Sodium/salt -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/78/Salt_sha

ker_on_white_background.jpg/1280px-

Salt_shaker_on_white_background.jpg

Bread -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Stale_bread.jp

g

Q-4:

cup - https://pixabay.com/p-158985/?no_redirect

Q-5:

Muffin -

https://visualsonline.cancer.gov/retrieve.cfm?imageid=2609&dpi=300

&fileformat=jpg

141

Chips -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/McCoy's_Crisp

s.jpg

Sprouted bread -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/McCoy's_Crisp

s.jpg

Level 2:

Q-1:

Frozen cherries - https://pixabay.com/p-1508862/?no_redirect

Canned fruit -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Del_Monte_ca

nned_pears.jpg

Fruit jam - https://pixabay.com/p-944522/?no_redirect

142

Fresh fruit -

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/20000/velka/fruit-salad-

11289323714od5.jpg

Q-2:

Whipping cream -

https://pixabay.com/p-924045/?no_redirect

Milk and cereal -

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/147/414939826_8aff0eaa1e_b.jpg

Yogurt and fruit -

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1040/4732944261_3d0e2f32ce_b.jpg

Sandwich –

https://pixabay.com/p-462645/?no_redirect

143

Q-3:

Oatmeal -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Oatmeal_with_

Blueberries_(5076894938).jpg

Pancakes -

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5256/5502814263_593be65b26_b.jpg

Sandwich –

http://www.public-domain-image.com/free-images/food-and-

drink/burgers-and-sandwiches/sandwich-with-bread-and-tomato-

salad-around-725x544.jpg

Rice and Curry -

https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6224/6312013060_e235952d91_b.jpg

144

Q-4:

Potato -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/BakedPotatoWi

thButter.jpg

Broccoli and cheese -

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/133/399355643_0683014ea6_z.jpg?zz=1

Chili and Beans -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Chili_con_carn

e_(4431800858).jpg

Onion Rings -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/OnionRings.JP

G

Q-5:

145

Nuts -

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4024/4415406430_d8433ae034_z.jpg?zz

=1

Tofu -

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2814/10059833443_b6a4f46631_b.jpg

Salami -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Spanish_salami

_in_Poznan.JPG

Fish -

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/140000/nahled/isolated-

salmon.jpg

Level 3

Q-1:

146

2 Pieces of Bread -

https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3188/2584062428_5b670d0e17_z.jpg?zz

=1

Cup of Cereal - https://pixabay.com/p-158985/?no_redirect

- https://pixabay.com/p-1444495/?no_redirect

1 Piece of Bread -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Kommissbrot.jp

g

1/2 Cup Rice -

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/110000/nahled/bowl-of-

rice.jpg

- https://pixabay.com/p-158985/?no_redirect

1 Cup Granola -

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4053/4402860361_574e29e4aa_b.jpg

147

- https://pixabay.com/p-158985/?no_redirect

Q-2:

1 Cup Beans –

https://pixabay.com/p-158985/?no_redirect

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Kidney_beans.j

pg

1/2 Cup Asparagus –

https://pixabay.com/p-158985/?no_redirect

- http://www.picserver.org/pictures/asparagus01-lg.jpg

1 Cup Lettuce –

https://pixabay.com/p-158985/?no_redirect

- http://www.picserver.org/pictures/lettuce02-lg.jpg

148

2 Cups Broccoli –

https://pixabay.com/p-158985/?no_redirect

- https://pixabay.com/p-1239149/?no_redirect

1/4 Cup Brussel Sprouts –

https://pixabay.com/p-158985/?no_redirect

- https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3762/10141592264_e6cebac136_b.jpg

Q-3:

Dried Fruit -

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/20000/velka/dried-

fruit.jpg

Fresh Apple –

https://static.pexels.com/photos/39803/pexels-photo-39803.jpeg

149

Frozen Fruit -

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/226/516204412_a7a8df2cfd_z.jpg?zz=1

Canned Fruit -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Del_Monte_ca

nned_pears.jpg

Orange Juice -

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4007/4430731914_258f107e63_b.jpg

Q-4:

Yogurt and Fruit -

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1040/4732944261_3d0e2f32ce_b.jpg

Cottage Cheese -

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7444/9543580578_080a24a416.jpg

150

Whole Milk -

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2922/14605866922_483841e3f4.jpg

Cheese -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/NCI_swiss_che

ese.jpg

Light Cream Cheese - taken by phone

Q-5:

Egg -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/Chicken

_egg_2009-06-04.jpg/731px-Chicken_egg_2009-06-04.jpg

Fish Fillet -

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1419/822821227_c54e352397_z.jpg?zz=

1

151

Half Handful of Nuts –

https://pixabay.com/p-639536/?no_redirect

Steak –

https://pixabay.com/p-866831/?no_redirect

Cards –

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ncRVcf-r40g/hqdefault.jpg

1/2 Cup Beans –

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Kidney_beans.j

pg

Level 4:

Q-1:

Peas –

http://www.picserver.org/pictures/peas01-lg.jpg

152

Lettuce -

http://www.picserver.org/pictures/lettuce02-lg.jpg

Whole Milk -

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2922/14605866922_483841e3f4.jpg

Steak –

https://pixabay.com/p-866831/?no_redirect

Apple –

https://static.pexels.com/photos/39803/pexels-photo-39803.jpeg

Rice -

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/110000/nahled/bowl-of-

rice.jpg

153

Q-2:

Cheese -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/NCI_swiss_che

ese.jpg

Peanut Butter -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Peanut_butter_

14juni09_001.jpg

- https://pixabay.com/p-350099/?no_redirect

Beans -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Kidney_beans.j

pg

Rice -

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/110000/nahled/bowl-of-

rice.jpg

154

Cherry -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Cherry_

Stella444.jpg/768px-Cherry_Stella444.jpg

Peas - http://www.picserver.org/pictures/peas01-lg.jpg

Q-3:

Vitamin C –N/A

Protein - N/A

Dietary Fiber - N/A

Potassium - N/A

Folic Acid - N/A

155

VItamin B12 - N/A

Q-4:

Salmon -

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1419/822821227_c54e352397_z.jpg?zz=

1

Tofu -

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2814/10059833443_b6a4f46631_b.jpg

Cheese -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/NCI_swiss_che

ese.jpg

Kiwi -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Kiwi_(Actinidia

_chinensis)_1_Luc_Viatour.jpg

156

Asparagus –

http://www.picserver.org/pictures/asparagus01-lg.jpg

Spinach -

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/170000/velka/spinach-

leaves-1461774443gLy.jpg

Q5:

Beans -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Kidney_beans.j

pg

Bagel - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Bagel-

Plain-Alt.jpg

Raspberries -

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/10000/velka/1-

1248158051Ix2h.jpg

157

Bran Flakes -

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7534/15942097598_bf283aef1d_b.jpg

Tofu -

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2814/10059833443_b6a4f46631_b.jpg

Peas - http://www.picserver.org/pictures/peas01-lg.jpg

Level 5:

Q-1:

Spinach -

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/170000/velka/spinach-

leaves-1461774443gLy.jpg

158

Potato -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Potato_with_sp

routs.jpg

Legumes -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Kidney_beans.j

pg

- http://www.picserver.org/pictures/peas01-lg.jpg

Orange Pepper -

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5051/5571468411_7c82cb6f0a_b.jpg

Onion and Cabbage -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Cabbage_-

_Indian_Botanic_Garden_-_Howrah_2012-01-29_1735.JPG

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Onion_on_Whit

e.JPG

159

Eggplant –

https://pixabay.com/p-89044/?no_redirect

Q-2:

Salmon -

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1419/822821227_c54e352397_z.jpg?zz=

1

Orange -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Orange-Fruit-

Pieces.jpg

Steak - https://pixabay.com/p-866831/?no_redirect

Olive Oil -

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5792/21959161494_46886fb8cd_b.jpg

160

Blue Berries -

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&

cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjBjJqWgcjPAhVKNiYKHaeHBlUQjBwIBA&url=htt

p%3A%2F%2Fwww.publicdomainpictures.net%2Fdownload-

picture.php%3Fadresar%3D10000%26soubor%3D1-

1248158243hym9.jpg%26id%3D3419&psig=AFQjCNHyz2CUB7cazC

PvLvSsO4VW_9fvCw&ust=1475906195098491

Tofu -

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2814/10059833443_b6a4f46631_b.jpg

Q-3:

Dietary fiber - N/A

Magnesium - N/A

Phosphorus - N/A

161

Iron - N/A

Vitamin D - N/A

Protein - N/A

Q-4:

Thiamin - N/A

Riboflavin - N/A

Iron - N/A

Niacin - N/A

162

Folic Acid - N/A

Fiber - N/A

Q-5:

Bagel - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Bagel-

Plain-Alt.jpg

Banana -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Cavendish_Ba

nana_DS.jpg

Potato -

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Potato_with_sp

routs.jpg

Milk - https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2922/14605866922_483841e3f4.jpg

163

Spinach -

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/170000/velka/spinach-

leaves-1461774443gLy.jpg

Canned Tuna -

https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6105/6241304067_06f3592dd9_b.jpg

164

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Biographical Sketch

Robert Edward Kleszczynski was born in Sarasota, Florida in

1992. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Telecommunications and a

Master of Arts in Digital Arts and Sciences from the University of

Florida. He has worked as a free-lance photographer and

videographer.

He currently resides in Sarasota, Florida and is working on his

own independent game to begin his career in independent game

development. He’s probably working some odd side jobs somewhere

as well.