SOCIAL SKILLS | COMMUNICATING ON FORUMS | COGNITIVE SKILLS
COGNITIVE SKILLS
While playing the mini games the players also learn many cognitive skills. A series of puzzle games were designed and developed for Chiko Accidental Alien that require each player to think through each problem as they attempt to solve one after the other.
One example of a minigame developed for Chiko Accidental Alien is the FOM Builder. This game is designed and inspired by tangrams. Wikipedia defines a tangram as:
a Chinese puzzle, and a type of dissection puzzle . A tangram consists of 7 pieces, called tans , which fit together to form a square. The objective is to form a specific shape with seven pieces. The shape has to contain all the pieces, which may not overlap.
(SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangram)
Below in this screenshot of the game, the player is asked to take each piece and arrange them over the image until they fit to form the shape of a Birdie Num-Num.
Below in this screenshot, the player is asked to take each piece and arrange them over the image until they fit to form the shape of a Vulture.
The educational learning benefits of tangrams as stated by Gerry Bohning 1'2 and Jody Kosack Althouse in their article Using Tangrams to Teach Geometry to Young Children are:
(1) It is essential that young children have developmentally appropriate experiences to foster a positive attitude toward all mathematics. Experiences with tangrams actively involve children as they develop the skills of a geometry vocabulary, shape identification, classification, and discovering the relationships between and among the seven pieces. Such early experiences are especially important for young children for recognizing and appreciating geometry in their natural world.
(2) The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) curriculum standards support the development of children's ability to combine, subdivide, and change shapes to develop their spatial sense. The benefits of using tangram activities help children reach those curriculum standards. Tangrams provide a concrete way to help students understand geometric concepts.
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