SciLab Genius, Kolej Yayasan Saad, Melaka
Summary of Project:
We created a game on Roblox where the player will have to conduct a simulator of a Photosynthesis process in the game. In order for the plants to grow, the player has to pass each obby (obstacle course) level in the roblox simulator and jump onto the plant with the elements collected in order for the plant to grow.
Problem Statement:
Students in form 2 are struggling to learn Science during the pandemic, even as they find it increasingly interesting and relevant to their lives. Their academic performance was significantly influenced by learning loss, particularly in the biology class. This is a result of their inability to comprehend biology properly because it requires a lot of experimentation and fact memorising. In order to better their comprehension of this subject, we are addressing this issue by developing a Roblox stimulator where students may conduct photosynthesis process online. We also created a Kahoot quiz to enable the students to re-learn every Biology topic in form 2 and help them recover from learning loss.
Participants Demographics:
24 students in total participated in first round of our project which is the Roblox Photosynthesis Stimulator. After that, the Top 12 people from the first round are qualified to participate in the second round of the project, which is the Kahoot Quiz round. We found that our participants were engaged and responsive throughout the project.
Project Impact & Impact Measurement Method:
Following the completion of our experiment, we evaluated its success by looking at the percentage of correctly answered questions that our participants had completed in their science homework after three days of our project. As a result of participating in our project, 70% of the participants were able to demonstrate improvements in their Biology topic exercises. This is the result of the Roblox Stimulator and the Kahoot Quiz questions that assisted students in better learning process and memorization of the subjects (based on the interviews that we did with the participants).
Changes Observed In Participants (Improvements/Progress):
From what we had observed, the participants managed to answer the quiz on Kahoot with a great result. They were able to recap the topics in Biology that they have learnt before. The participants also got to test their knowledge and understanding regarding Biology topics. As a result, they feel more prepared for their finals.
Challenges/Setbacks Faced:
Initially, we planned to create a quiz and a photosynthesis simulator both on Roblox, which includes us having to create the codes in order for the elements to work. We went through a lot of difficulties to create the codes as we had to learn about a new programming language called Lua. We had to start everything from square one and we had very insufficient time due to our final year examination at that time. We thought we could make it as we already learnt the basics to code in school but it got harder when we actually start practicing it on our own.
During meetings with our mentor and also sessions with the organizers of YEC, we told them about our problems in hopes of finding a solution. At last, we decided to lower our high standards and expectation by separating the quiz from our Roblox game, and use Kahoot instead. We also added an obby (obstacle course) around the simulator to substitute. These solutions were based on the combination of opinions from all of the people in this team, our mentor, Miss Sophie as well as the organizers. We appreciate their assistance and felt really grateful as it really did help us to reach the final milestone of the project.