Abstract:

This paper is the result of a project that is under development by a team of computer science students from a Brazilian higher education institution. This institution offers workshops for students a few times a year to give them insights about the career of information technology (IT) and their studies. An integral part of these events are workshops and hackathons, where real products are developed. Games programming workshops, robotics, and microcontrollers programming are common. However, database-related events are rare and rarely occur. Faced with this demand, we propose the development of the “SQL Planet” game, in which students can learn SQL and have fun with it. In addition, the game can also be used in database classes as a support exercise so that students can improve their SQL skills and evaluate the progress of their training.

The SQL language is made up of several parts. One of them is the data definition language (DDL), which is responsible for creating tables and defining a schema; while another part, data manipulation language (DML) is responsible for inserting, modifying, and deleting rows in tables and data that meet specific criteria. The DDL part is not taught in the game because the tables already exist in the game environment and because we think it goes beyond the basics.

The intent is that in about one or two hours of gameplay, the player can master SQL basics with SELECT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements, groupings, aggregate functions, and joins. With this, we will try to overcome two barriers:
(a) lack of student interest in the topics of database and SQL language;
(b) lack of online and open educational resources that promote and facilitate the teaching and learning of SQL language.

In this work, we will discuss how the production of digital games, together with a constructional proposal and game-based learning, meaningful play interaction, can favor digital literacy and IT literacy. In order to do so, we will discuss the relationship between constructionism and creative learning. We will discuss aspects of the development of digital literacy and IT literacy, as well as the importance of creating digital games for the development of classes that favor the experience of moments when the spiral of creative learning can be truly realized. We present the paper methodology, clarifying the game development, scenarios, narratives, characters, and didactic considerations. And then we present the section with a conclusion about the work discussing how students can improve their SQL skills playing this game.

Keywords:

Game-based learning, IT Education, SQL.