University students who play calculus video game score higher on exams

An educational video game initially developed by Texas A&M University visualization students significantly boosts students’ scores in introductory calculus, one of the toughest classes to pass on a university campus.

The calculus video game, Variant: Limits, connects mathematics and gameplay in a 3D adventure in which students stop geomagnetic storms that threaten their planet’s survival by solving a series of increasingly challenging calculus problems. It was born in a collaboration of viz students and an interdisciplinary group of university faculty who work together in the Department of Visualization’s LIVE Lab.

It’s time for innovative teaching in higher ed

Innovative, effective measures to teach introductory calculus are in demand because too many students are failing. In fact, 22-38 percent of university students, depending on their preparation, failed calculus at more than 200 colleges that participated in a Mathematical Association of America study.…Read More

University researchers: Video games are good for students

Eighty-two percent of video game players in the US are 18 or older.

Studies showing the positive effects of video games might give college students a research-based excuse for why, exactly, they eschewed homework for “Call of Duty.”

Papers published by researchers at the University of Rochester in New York and North Carolina State University (NCSU) document a laundry list of cognitive improvements linked to consistent video-game playing.

After a few dozen test subjects between the ages of 18 and 25 played fast-paced video games and slow-paced games, researchers saw participants from the former group improve their ability to collect auditory and visual information when compared to those who played slower video games like Sim City.…Read More

Oops! We could not locate your form.