Simple Puzzles Research Articles

GAME BOARD TO IMPROVE CHILDREN'S DENTAL AND ORAL HEALTH KNOWLEDGE

Background: The five-year period in the stage of child development is the golden age, which is a golden period in the period of growth and development of children. During this period, everything that is poured out and absorbed in the child will become the basis and sharp memory in the child, including the maintenance of dental health. The growth of 3 to 5-year-olds has some skills such as color naming. Children do tend to prefer to play. Children's activities while playing while learning can support growth and development and absorb learning optimally. Games that can be played while learning are putting together simple puzzles, drawing and coloring, composing and stacking block games, playing sand, clay or toy candles, singing, role-playing, playing music and board games. Objectives: To develop dental and oral health game boards for kindergarten children aged 3-5 years in kindergartens in the Kersamenak sub-district, Kawalu Tasikamalaya District. Methods: The research method is carried out by research and development (R&D) methods and Quasi experiments with non-equivalent pre and post test designs. The research was conducted by conducting FGD with kindergarten teachers in the Kersamenak sub-district area, Kawalu District, Tasikmalaya City using a total sampling technique of 30 teachers. Results: The description of the conclusion to the respondents' answers is the development of dental and oral health game boards for kindergarten children aged 3-5 years in kindergartens in the Kersamenak sub-district, Kawalu Tasikamalaya District. Conclusion: Production of dental and oral health game boards and game board manuals.

The Creative Game Tools and Mother's Motivation to Know Educational for Children Aged 1-3 Years

Background: A mother's motivation to know about educational and creative game tools has an important role in optimal child growth and development according to age level so that it can be fulfilled properly. Educational and creative game tools are game tools that can optimise children's development according to their age and level of development. Examples of educational and creative games for children aged 1-3 years are drums, balls with sleighs inside, household items that do not break easily (plastic cups, spoons, plastic bottles, buckets, etc.), large blocks, cardboard, picture books, coloured pencils, plasticine, simple puzzles. The research aims to determine mothers' motivation to learn about educational and creative games for children aged 1-3 years in Tanjungsari Village, Sukorejo District, Blitar City. Methods: Research design using descriptive, Population 500, sample 50 respondents, using purposive sampling technique, research instrument using questionnaires; this research was carried out on March 20, 2023 - April 15, 2023, with the mother's motivation variable to know educational and creative game tools for children aged 1-3 year. Data were analysed using percentages and interpreted quantitatively. Results: The results of research from 50 respondents showed that all respondents had strong motivation (100%) because the majority of mothers had received information about educational and creative game tools. Mothers' motivation to find out about educational and creative game tools for children aged 1-3 years is influenced by several factors, namely age, education, occupation, whether they have received information, and where the information was obtained Conclusion: It is hoped that respondents will be able to maintain and motivate other mothers to seek more information to broaden their knowledge so that they are more motivated to know about the benefits and uses of educational and creative play equipment for children aged 1-3 years.

Innovative Teaching-Learning using Crossword Puzzles

It is important to introduce innovative teaching and learning methods to motivate students to develop thinking abilities and to motivate faculty to break monotonous lectures. There are multiple innovative teaching-learning methods, a few to name are crosswords puzzles, flipped classroom, mind map, Think share pair, one-minute paper, etc. This paper discusses the usage and impact of innovative teaching method, technical crossword puzzles. Simple puzzles on some specific topics are made using open source and trial softwares by giving the clues for the down and across. The crossword puzzle is given to a group of two students to solve within a time limit. Even though they need to focus and think a lot to solve a crossword, students also find it very interesting. They feel satisfied and accomplished if they can solve the whole puzzle correctly. From the faculty perspective designing a crossword by creating a set of questions with single-word answers that can be fitted into a crossword puzzle is a tedious task. Creating a puzzle by the faculty and solving the puzzle by a student is equally challenging and satisfying. Crosswords were created for multiple subjects like Systems Programming and OS, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Networking, etc. Feedback from the students is taken orally and in the written form which indicates that such innovative teaching-learning methods increase their focus, thinking ability, and interest in the subject and are fun. The feedback shows that 100% students enjoyed solving the puzzle. 92.7% students agreed that their thinking ability improved, 72.2% students say that they were able to recall the topics to solve the puzzle. 74.1% of students gave feedback that crossword puzzles can be a part of the evaluation system. 98.1% students also agreed that student interaction increased as they solved puzzles in a team.

VR‐OCKS: A virtual reality game for learning the basic concepts of programming

AbstractThis paper presents a prototype of a virtual reality (VR) system to teach the basic concepts of programming called VR‐OCKS. The system is inspired by other visual languages such as Scratch or Kodu, and it works by proposing to the user the resolution of simple puzzles in a 3D environment. Several basic commands to a humanoid character, such as advance or turn, together with control flow structures like iteration and conditional selections, are needed to provide a solution for increasingly difficult challenges. Our aim is to attract users, usually children and teenagers, into the world of programming by taking advantage of the appeal and potential of VR. The use of VR‐OCKS strengthened the spatial orientation and autonomy of the users, in addition to enhancing common sense, creative thinking, and systematic reasoning. In our experiments, VR‐OCKS was accepted by adults and children alike and it showed great potential as an educational tool.

Dream Interpretation of an Infant and Feminine Monstrosity in Among the Sleep

Among The Sleep (2014) follows an infant in his quest to search for memories of his mother. The game receives mixed opinions regarding its overly simple puzzles and confusing juxtaposition of the dream symbols; nevertheless, it is still praised for its storytelling and visuals used to build the momentum leading up to the resolution invoking strong emotions in players. Contrary to a popular belief that infants are incapable of understanding the events around them, in this game the infant can process his surroundings with the help of dreams and fantasies. In Freudian perspective, they will unconsciously affect an infant’s personality when growing up. This research aims to understand the infant’s dreams using Freud’s interpretation of dreams. The findings show that the dream elements are the wish-fulfilment part of the infant’s cognitive ability to cope with his surroundings. Moreover, using the concepts of abjection and hysteria, it is revealed that memories of his mother are often filled with feminine monstrosity to satiate her desire for having a penis by attempting to castrate him. Similar to many other video games, Among The Sleep carries a message through its storytelling elements, and it is to encourage the audience to tackle their own trauma.

How does knowledge evolve using adaptive heuristics learning in an engineering game

In this paper, the primary focus is on the performers whose learning process originate by solving simple or complex problems and perceiving the performers interest in solving advanced problems from the knowledge obtained. An open-source puzzle like a game UNTANGLED is used in our study. The game is developed to unravel the mapping/placement problems in electrical engineering by using human instincts. Telemetry data for the two groups of performers who solved simple and complex puzzles in the first attempt is considered to investigate the Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory (KELT) and fathom the adaptive heuristics for building knowledge from experience. From analysis performed it is evident that a similar learning process is followed by both performers who played initial and complex puzzles in first attempt. Also, results illustrate that the players who first played initial level puzzles are more interested in playing next level puzzles than the one who first played complex puzzles. Results illustrate that 18% of players who solved easy in first attempt played advanced puzzles in consecutive attempts. Apparently, conclusions advocate that to develop an indelible appetite to deal with advanced/complex problems, STEM education teachers need to structure the lab experiments or teach the complex concepts by starting from simple projects/concepts to complex one. By making learners to try a greater number of low-level abstraction problems will engage learners’ interest in solving high-level abstraction problems. Similarly, educational game designers can develop a game environment introducing more intermediate levels, which gives enough experience to deal with difficult levels

Functional fixedness in tool use: Learning modality, limitations and individual differences

Functional fixedness is a cognitive bias that describes how previous knowledge of a tool's function can negatively impact the use of this tool in novel contexts. As such, functional fixedness disturbs the use of tools during mechanical problem solving. Little is known about whether this bias emerges from different experiences with tools, whether it occurs regardless of problem difficulty, or whether there are protective factors against it. To resolve the first issue, we created five experimental groups: Reading (R), Video (V), Manual (M), No Functional Fixedness (NFF), and No Training (NT). The R group learned to use tools by reading a description of their use, the V group by watching an instructional video, and the M group through direct instruction and active manipulation of the tools. To resolve the remaining two issues, we created mechanical puzzles of distinct difficulty and used tests of intuitive physics, fine motor skills, and creativity.Results showed that misleading functional knowledge is at the core of functional fixedness, and that this bias generates cognitive impasses in simple puzzles, but it does not play a role in higher difficulty problems. Additionally, intuitive physics and motor skills were protective factors against its emergence, but creativity did not influence it. Although functional fixedness leads to inaccurate problem solving, our results suggest that its effects are more limited than previously assumed.

Using puzzles and chases for student engagement in a course for non-majors

This paper describes an experience of engaging non-major students in a general education computing course by using simple puzzles and chases to have the students participating in teams and explorin...

Using intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in continuing professional education.

Using intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in continuing professional education.

Solving Computationally Intensive Problems in Reconfigurable Hardware:A Case Study

In this paper we explore the effectiveness of solution of computationally intensive problems in FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) on an example of Sudoku game. Three different Sudoku solvers have been implemented and tested on a low-cost FPGA of Xilinx Spartan-3E family. The first solver is only able to deal with simple puzzles with reasoning, i.e. without search. The second solver applies breadth-first search algorithm and therefore has virtually no limitation on the type of puzzles which are solvable. We prove that despite the serial nature of implemented backtracking search algorithms, parallelism can be used efficiently. Thus, the suggested third solver explores the possibility of parallel processing of search tree branches and boosts the performance of the second solver. The trade-offs of the designed solvers are analyzed, the results are compared to software and to other known implementations, and conclusions are drawn on how to improve the suggested architectures.

Das Verhalten eines Zwergschimpansen (Pan paniscus) bei einfachsten “Puzzle-Spiel”-Aufgaben

Man is able to make copies (two- or three-dimensional) of things which he has seen. Does this ability distinguish him clearly from all other organisms? If an animal could be shown to be able to solve simple puzzles from patterns we could take that as a starting point for testing the hypothesis. Despite a training procedure of 550 trials a pigmy chimpanzee did not learn to fit two rectangular plates of different colours onto two corresponding plates in a frame. Because the animal had difficulties even in manipulating the plates it is concluded that a thorough training of this ability would be necessary precondition for further experiments in this direction.

Children’s capacity to remember a novel problem and to secure its future solution

Much of humans' success rests on foresight, the ability to predict what will happen or what is needed in the future. Surprisingly little is known about how this faculty develops. In three experiments (N = 170), 3- and 4-year-old children were presented with simple puzzles. Fifteen minutes later in a different room they were given the opportunity to secure a solution to take back to the puzzle. Only the older children performed above chance, whereas both age groups could solve the task in an instant condition. The same pattern of results emerged for another task involving selection of something to 'feed ' a puppet whose favorite food was initially unavailable. Control conditions suggest that temporal rather than spatial displacement influenced performance. Verbal reports substantiated the conclusion that by age 4 some children can remember a novel problem sufficiently enough to recognize a solution and select that solution in anticipation of applying it to the problem in the future.

Virtual Augmented Exercise Gaming for Older Adults

This paper details the design, development, and testing of virtual augmented exercise (VAE) gaming for older adults. Three versions of an underwater VAE environment were tested with a sample of 22 healthy adults aged 50 or over. Participants strongly preferred VAE to traditional physical exercise, and adherence rate was 100%. The findings suggest that VAE with puzzles changes or negates the expected negative associations among exercise outcomes. Fitness level was not associated with performance in the game, irrespective of VAE type, indicating that persons who are less physically fit can expect to perform similarly to those who are more physically fit. In conclusion, the research found some evidence for the benefits of VAE with cognitive exercise (solving simple puzzles and hitting targets based on the answer). This type of exercise appears to be a promising method of exercise for older adults.

Spatial breakdown in spatial construction: Evidence from eye fixations in children with Williams syndrome

We investigated the role of executive and spatial representational processes in impaired performance of block construction tasks by children with Williams syndrome (WS), a rare genetic defect that results in severely impaired spatial cognition. In Experiment 1, we examined performance in two kinds of block construction tasks, Simple Puzzles, in which block faces contained a single color, and Complex, in which some block faces contained an arrangement of two colors. WS and control children were comparable in their ability to solve simple puzzles, and showed similar eye-fixation patterns, suggesting that basic executive processes were intact. However, WS children were severely impaired in their ability to solve complex puzzles. In these puzzles, WS children fixated the complex puzzle models and checked their partial solutions less often than normal children, but they were comparable in their ability to detect errors in their copies and almost exclusively made repairs to copies that were, in fact, incorrect. We conjecture that the abnormal fixation patterns were a consequence of impoverished spatial representations, rather than a cause of it. This conjecture was tested in Experiment 2, where we examined children’s capacity to match and place individual blocks without engaging the complex executive processes required to carry out a complete puzzle solution. We found serious deficiency among WS children in both aspects of spatial representation. Moreover, estimates of the errors in representing the identity and location of model blocks derived from Experiment 2 provided a good account of the observed errors in the block construction task of Experiment 1.

A note on visualizing the Omega Prism

Simple techniques are described for demonstrating graphically interesting behavior of puzzles defined on finite lattices. The simple puzzles should be of interest to students and teachers who may wish to design and solve similar problems. In particular, this note describes computer graphics used to gain insight into the behavior of the solution space.