CodeSpells lets you be a wizard and learn Java programming at the same time

Who says Java programming is no fun?

 

Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego have come up with "CodeSpells," a first-person video game aimed at elementary and high school students.

 

“CodeSpells is the only video game that completely immerses programming into the game play,” said William Griswold, a computer scientist at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego.

 

A news article on the Jacobs School of Engineering website said the researchers tested the game on 40 girls aged 10 to 12.

 

While the girls had not been exposed to Java programming, they quickly mastered some basic components of Java and used it to create new ways to play the game, it said.

 

It added the UC San Diego computer scientists plan to release the game for free, and to any educational institution that requests it.

 

The game is designed to keep children engaged while they are coping with the difficulties of programming.

 

Sarah Esper, one of the lead graduate students on the development of CodeSpells, added teaching children how to program must be a priority in a society where technology is becoming more important.

 

Another lead student, Stephen Foster, added programming teaches logical thinking.

'Addicted' to programming, logical thinking  

“We’re hoping that they will get as addicted to learning programming as they get addicted to video games,” Foster said.

 

The game is expected to be a major boost for teaching computer science below the college level, which is hard because of the lack of qualified instructors.

 

Due to the lack of qualified instructors, Griswold and his graduate students tried to find ways to reach these students outside the classroom.

 

Esper will present her CodeSpells work April 18 at Research Expo at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego.

 

Wizards, gnomes, and magic

 

In CodeSpells, players are given the role of wizards in a land populated by gnomes who lost their magic, and the wizards must help them by writing spells in - you guessed it - Java.

 

Players can also earn badges via quests, which help them master the game’s spells, such as crossing a river or rescuing a gnome from the roof.

 

"By the time players complete the game’s first level, they have learned the main components of the Java programming language, such as parameters, for if statements, for loops and while loops, among other skills," the university said.

 

Testing the game

 

Researchers tested the game on a group of 40 girls ages 10 to 12 in San Diego. The students were disappointed when the test was over.

 

More importantly, they did not lose interest even when they made mistakes while writing code. Instead, they used the mistakes to explore further possibilities in the game.

 

CodeSpells got its influence from Esper and Foster's research on how successful programmers learn their trade. The research identified five characteristics key to learning:

 

 

 

— TJD, GMA News