Children as educational computer game designers: An Exploratory study

This study investigated how children designed computer games as artifacts that reflected their understanding of nutrition. Ten 5^th grade students were asked to design computer games with the software Game Maker for the purpose of teaching 1^st graders about nutrition. The results from the case study show that students were able to express their personal thoughts and intentions by designing and developing realistic computer games in a complex programming environment. Our findings point to gender implications and other contextual factors that motivated social interaction around game design and programming strategies.