RATS Recreating A Terrifying Scene: using educational games to teach facts

Abstract: The concept of computer games in education is an expanding field. There is a strong need for appropriate pedagogical software to be used in education. This thesis is an exploratory study which involves the design of a computer game for primary school students in the ages 10 to 12 with a general focus on the subject of History and in particular, source criticism. Through an experiment involving the designed game and pre and post-test questionnaires, two school classes in Sweden were tested to see if the game could be used as an educational tool. Furthermore, if an implementation of certain aspects of elaborative rehearsal would have any further positive effects. The results indicated that the students were in fact able to learn through playing the game. However, the implementation of elaborative rehearsal did not yield any significant increase in learning outcomes.