Professional Inquiry Project

Megan Davis 2016

Statement of the Guiding Question that Directs the Project
How do games as pedagogical tools impact student engagement and learning in the classroom?
A Description of the Strategies Implemented as Part of the Project
In order to effectively navigate this professional inquiry project, I think it best to begin
my inquiry by introducing games in small ways before overwhelming the students and myself
with gamified lesson plans and units. For this reason, my first strategy is to incorporate
meaningful learning games into as many lessons as possible. In infrequently taught classes such
as computer class and gym class, I will incorporate interdisciplinary themes into these games.
For example, in computer class, I introduced students to Wumpas World an interactive game
targeting our current social studies curriculum. Students loved this game and enjoyed it
unanimously for an entire computer class. Another example is in gym class, I introduced students
to snowshoeing. I pretended we were on a polar bear hunt and we snow-shoed around the
playground. Two students self-nominated themselves as polar bears; we had a fun game of
snowshoe tag around the playground. I also plan to introduce more Inuit/FNMI games into the
upcoming gym classes while we are studying cultures in social studies.
The next step in my strategy is to introduce a full lesson that follows a game narrative.
Students will use their imaginations to complete specific tasks to reach a goal. This lesson plan
will demonstrate itself much like a game. There will be set rules and strict timelines to complete
a task. Students will be rewarded when the goal has been achieved.
Finally, the third and final step in my strategy is to introduce a full unit that follows a
game narrative. I plan on creating this inter-disciplinarian game unit using the Grade 2: Boats
and Buoyancy Unit. The general idea is that students will be introduced to the narrative; they are
trapped on an island and must figure out how to escape. This unit will be four weeks long.
Within the first three weeks, each week will constitute a quest; I will introduce students to a
week inquiry question which they will solve by the end of the week and subsequently move on to
the next quest the following week. There will be three quests before students have the required
knowledge to escape the island. The final week is boss week, where students demonstrate their
knowledge about boats and buoyancy to escape the island successfully. Once boss week is
completed, students will have successfully completed the mission the unit. This
accomplishment will deserve a reward. Also, throughout the mission, there will be several
opportunities to add in interdisciplinary knowledge such as math, language arts, social, etc.
Timeline of Events
The entire process will be ongoing. Ideally, January and February are months where I will
practice implementing meaningful games into lessons. March is the month where I will practice

implementing gamified lesson plans, and April is the month where I will implement a gamified
unit.
Description of Final Products
The final product I will leave behind at my school is a resource of reading materials for
teachers to build their own gamified units in their classrooms, supporting research, and my
complete unit plan as an exemplar. I will also provide links and descriptions of the games I
implemented in the classroom along the way for teachers to use in the future. This final product
will be left in the library for school use.
Outline of How the Project Findings Will Be Shared at the School
I would like to introduce my project at the April staff meeting to prompt teachers to
reflect on a new pedagogical and planning tool and to engage school interest in the project. I will
carefully reflect on the progress of the unit so I can express success and/or failure. If the project
goes well - and if the school staff are interested - I would attend the May staff meeting to report
on the project.

PIP
Project

Related
KSA

Strategies

Goal: To
familiarize
myself with
game theory
and
implement
games as a
pedagogical
tool in my
teaching.

KSA 4:
Teachers
know there
are many
approaches
to teaching
and learning.

-Research game
theory
-Incorporate
meaningful
learning games
into lesson
plans.
-Incorporate
interdisciplinary
themes into
games
-Create
gamified lessons
and units.
-Create
interdisciplinary
year plans, unit
plans, and
lesson plans that
incorporate
games
-Create lesson
plans using
game theory
-Create a unit
plan using game
theory
-Create
interdisciplinary
year plans and
lesson plans that
incorporate
games
-Create lesson
plans using
game theory
-Create a unit

KSA 5:
Teachers
engage in a
range of
planning
activities.

Guiding
Question:
How do
games as
pedagogical
tools impact
student
engagement
and learning
in the

KSA 7:
Teachers
translate
curriculum
content and
objectives
into
meaningful
learning
activities.

Resources Evidence
of
Success
-Moving
Ideas:
Multimodality
and Embodied
Learning in
Communities
and Schools
Katz
-Institute of
Play PDF
from Quest to
Learn
Website
-Alberta
Learning
Curriculum
-Scholarly
Articles
-Internet
Resources:
Webpages
Online-Games
-Teacher-made
Resources

Timeline

-Year Plans,
Ongoing
Unit Plans,
and Lesson
Plans with the
incorporation
of games.
-Reflections

-Year Plans,
Ongoing
Unit Plans,
and Lesson
Plans with the
incorporation
of games.
-Reflections

-Completed
plans with
adequate
reflection
-Student
feedback on
the
incorporation
of games
-Evidence of

Ongoing

classroom?

plan using game

theory

KSA 8:
Teachers
apply a
variety of
technologies
to meet
students
learning
needs.

-Create
interdisciplinary
year plans, unit
plans, and
lesson plans that
incorporate
game use using
technology in
innovative
ways.

student
engagement
-Evidence of
student
learning
-Year Plans,
Ongoing
Unit Plans,
and Lesson
Plans with the
innovative
incorporation
of
technology.
-Reflections