VIRTUAL AND REAL

Abstract: According to the statistics from Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), a continuously declining trend is showed in Swedish kids' mathematical performance during recent years. In comparison with other OECD countries, the mathematical literacy of 15-year-old students in Sweden is almost below average. So more and more people start to doubt about Swedish math education system. Nowadays, tablets appear commonly as teaching tools in schools and we accept digital tools better and better in teaching and learning. Scientific EdTech, a startup in the field of educational gaming industry, aims to create a brand new tablet game to improve the first to third graders' basic mathematical abilities. I joined their team as a 2D and concept artist. So I mainly paid attention to game design, including background, visual apprearance, game logic, and interaction logic. The experiment the team did about traditional teaching and tablet teaching showed the potential of gamification in education. And the result of the survey about children's preference of the game art style reflected the change of their aesthetics. Through analyzing the existing educational games, we realized the current games cannot be a reliable way of teaching math. So there is an opportunity to make an ideal mathematical game. The outcome of the project would be an educational tablet game, which aims to create an appealing virtual world to stimulate children's enthusiasm for learning math and improve their mathematical performance in reality. The project tries to influence the digitization in the right direction together with the teachers and innovate in backward teaching methods and give both teachers and students a better experience.