SquarkBlog

Squark Games' educational games division, SquarkEDU, has been appointed as the Official Online Resource Centre for Thinkcon-1, Malaysia's first ever convention to showcase the use of designer games in classrooms as tools for developing critical thinking and other skills to be held on Sri Cempaka School, Damansara this weekend. We plan to provide an facilities for and online community dedicated to the use of games as educational tools at all levels of education from kindergarten through primary and secondary schools, right up to tertiary. We are also dedicated to providing the corporate sector with the knowledge and tools to use games in team building and various knowledge and skills training.

This morning, Mr Edwin Wong, the Chief Organiser of Thinkcon-1, and Squark Games' Dr Chua (yours truly) taught Sri Cempaka, Damanasara Heights primary and secondary students how to play Ricochet Robots and Blokus in preparation for this Saturday's Thinkcon-1 games competition. Children from Lower Primary right up to Upper Secondary. They all gathered in the Dance Studio, class-by-class. After a short introduction by one of the many teachers who also gathered there, the children all stood up and gave the mandatory "Good Morning Mr Wong! Good Morning Dr Chua!" That felt good. Respect at last. :) We waved and said wished them all a very good morning back. Edwin then gave a briefing, explaning Consulting Detective, one of the games to be played by the Upper Secondary pupils. After that a briefing on Blokus and Ricochet Robot ensued.

The response from the children were tremendous. Their enthusiasm were evident as they rushed towards the game tables when the briefing was over and the time to practise arrived. I was there to teach them the award-winning game, Blokus. The younger children, all wanting to go first in Blokus, pushed and shoved each other scrambled to be the first one to place a piece. That was when, thankfully, the teacher took over and restored order to this enthusiastic group! When  the order of play was organised, with players taking a few turns then their classmates took over, I was surprised that they already grasped the basics of Blokus. All players preformed splendidly. There were some very good Lower Primary children who was so well-versed in the opening moves that their opponent did not stand a chance. The makings of future world Blokus champions. Excellent!

Shaun Wong, the President of the Flames of War Club at Sri Cempaka, Damansara, explained to the players of Flames of War the basics of this successful game. There were many excited boys and girls who gathered around the Flames of War table, clearly absorbing the rules being explained by Shaun. Judging by the discussions at the Flames of War table, I think it's going to be a very well-attended competition. The students were asking sensible questions about the finer points of the rules, which showed that they were thinking about the nuances of the Flames of War rules.

The session, which seemed to have passed too quickly, ended with many groans and moans as the teachers announced that the children had to go back to their classrooms to resume normal classroom activities. The students reluctantly left the games tables and went back to class. My conclusion was that these students learned the rules of their respective games very quickly and most of them played well, some of them very well. They loved the whole session. From what I observed, in the Blokus group, they have well-developed critical thinking skills, even the lower primary students. They grasped the tactical and strategic situations well. On the Ricochet Robots table, the students demonstrated good logical thinking and excellent sequential planning. The Flames of War table demonstration showed that the students had brushed-up on their history knowledge, as well as having tactical planning. Judging from the excitement of today's session, this is going to be an exciting weekend at Thinkcon-1.