Games + Learning + Society Conference Proceedings

This paper aims to analyze how Transformations Quest, an educational block-based videogame designed using the academically meaningful play framework supports middle grade students’ learning of geometric transformations. Data sources include video footage of 18 students’ dialogue with researchers while playing the game on Zoom. We present one illustrative example as evidence of the students’ geometric transformations learning using our game. Findings determined that the game helped students to productively hybridize everyday and mathematical formal experiences in favor of mathematical understandings beyond the curriculum, leading us to conclude that when games are designed with an academically meaningful play lens, they can support the building of conceptual understanding.