Abstract:

My proposal for INTED 2009 Congress is to share with other teachers and professors my experience in a new project for enhancing learning of undergraduates which I have named “The Game of Colour”.

How did everything start: Bored students... I need a solution!
Revision activities are common in primary and secondary education when we reach the end of each term, and students demand them in order to prepare their exams. The most simple is to dedicate one session of one or two hours to solve problems and clarify doubts but, most of the times, it results in a boring session. In addition, many of the less motivated students simply “disconnect” and waste their time, instead of paying attention to their teacher and partners.
To solve this problem, and also to motivate the whole group of students, I have invented a new activity named The Game of Colour (the name is variable depending on the subject. For example, if you teach Maths you can name it “The Game of the Crazy Numbers” or, if you teach Physical Education it could be named “The Olympic Games Quiz”, and so on).
Two factors are the key of the game:
1) The knowledge of the students (they have to study to win the game)
2) The chance (they play with a dice, and this brings emotion and surprise to the game)
The result is a mixture of what we call in Spain “The Goose Game”, and the famous Trivial Pursuit.

Objectives
The goals of the game are mainly two:
1) First, to refresh concepts and processes with pupils
2) And second, to achieve a higher motivation and participation of the students in their learning process.


Context and Results
I designed this activity for my pupils of Superior Professional Formation of the speciality of Image in May of 2008, and the results were very satisfactory. The pupils got fun and, at the same time, the activity was useful for them to prepare their exams.

What does the game consists on?
I have produced a board game adapted to our subjects, which are Photography, Video and Cinema, the three of them having in common that they need the colours of the light to form pictures. In that board, the gooses have been turned into aerials or antennas, the bridges, into plugs; and we also have a Dices square, a Labyrinth square, an Inn square and a Death square.
The classroom is divided into three groups, each of them representing one of the primary colours of the light (red, blue and green). Each group must prepare difficult questions to ask the other groups. If they answer correctly, they cast the dice again and they advance along the board. The group which reaches the end first, wins the game.

The Reward
The best reward is getting fun during the game and also to learn and revise contents for the exams but... If there is a group that clearly demonstrates a high skill in answering the questions, the teacher can reward the students rounding up the final mark obtained in the exam. This is only a suggestion but I have noticed that this specially interests students and motivates them in the game. The consequence is that they work hard studying for winning The Game of Colour and, this way, they enhance learning and prepare better for their exams.

Keywords:

educational games, new projects, enhancing learning and the undergraduates experience, learning.