Discovery games

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Discovery play about drives with Johann Bernhard Basedow (1724–1790). Engraving by Daniel Chodowiecki

As explorers games are called in the game science a category of games in which the natural desire for exploration is lived playfully. It is a generic summary of a large number of diverse individual games from different subject areas, which in turn can be divided into several subcategories. What they have in common is that they grow out of curiosity and a thirst for knowledge and encourage playful trying out, design, experimentation and even scientific research.

character

According to the biologist and behavioral researcher Frederik Jacobus Johannes Buytendijk , discovery games are a form of instinct-related elementary satisfaction of needs. Even preschoolers love to experiment with objects from their environment and thus get to know them through play. Discovery games demand creativity . They are at the same time a form of self-determined multi - dimensional learning in which the player is holistic, i.e. H. is active in the interaction of several of its learning potentials. Accordingly, games of discovery have found their way into school lessons in almost all subjects as a successful method . Today they are used didactically not only in physics, chemistry and mathematics, i.e. the natural science subjects, but also in German, sports, technology, art, biology, religion or geography lessons.

attractiveness

Discovery games meet the thirst for knowledge and the natural urge to explore and accordingly offer an abundance of play possibilities in dealing with objects, rooms, found or self-created situations and events, with people and animals. They encourage the desire to venture into unknown worlds and explore new things. This ambition meets the desire for excitement and adventure . The experience of being able to solve problems independently increases self-esteem and self-confidence, and since the motivation impulse comes from the child and less from the educator, it is particularly suitable for developing initiative and self-activity and, in this respect, as a teaching method more efficient than secondary motivation by the teacher . In terms of teaching technology, discovery games are therefore primarily used in so-called student - centered lessons or in open lessons . The main task of the teacher is to create learning impulses and learning arrangements for discovery games that inspire the exploration instinct, but do not curb it.

Examples by playing fields

biology

A widespread sub-category of discovery games in the biological field are the so-called doctor games : They are particularly popular in preschool and elementary school age and arise from curiosity about one's own body and that of the opposite sex. The roles of doctor and patient are often assumed and played out. According to the sex psychologist Alfred C. Kinsey , in addition to satisfying childish curiosity, the doctor games also have the function of relieving fears of the sexual area and of going to the doctor. In adults, this category of play can still be found in erotic role-playing games .

geography

In a geographical area, the world can be easily discovered, with its landscapes, natural wonders, human diversity, fauna and flora . For example, the Diercke World Atlas invites children and adolescents from the fifth to thirteenth school year with a suitable material box to embark on a journey of discovery through Germany, Europe and the world. The aim is to literally "experience" the world on various game boards according to a travel plan, alone or in competition with others, whereby geographical knowledge of the country and people as well as creativity and willingness to learn are required. So students can z. Take, for example, the journeys of the great adventurer Odysseus through the Aegean and the Mediterranean, from Marco Polo to Asia and China or from Alexander von Humboldt to the South American continent.

Traffic education

In traffic education, the so-called school way game has established a form of play that children can use to discover their own way to school on their own shortly before or after starting school accompanied by an adult . As a result of the explorations, a board game is created that depicts the way to school and uses varied event, hazard and task cards to encourage further experience and reflection on seasonal changes or different situations and behaviors of road users.

nature

With its variety of phenomena, nature can become a space of experience if it is understood and designed as a source for playful discoveries. The forest with its vegetation and its fauna can be discovered as a play area , a stream with its flowing water, twigs, branches, chestnuts and pine cones can become play partners for children. Even a natural landscape that is apparently as far away from the horizon as the jungle can be discovered with the help of skilful and experienced animators through research and playful activities as an adventure-packed space.

game

Also, the sector 's self can lead to interesting discoveries. In the age of virtual games, for example, game forms that have almost been forgotten can be explored and revived that were still known and played by parents and grandparents.

Brueghel : The children's games 1560 as a space of discovery

In the context of today's widespread, interculturally composed school classes and leisure activities, it is almost a good idea to get to know the toys and the ways of playing from other countries, peoples and cultures and thus to have interesting new gaming experiences. The well-known painting by the Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder , Children's Games from 1560, even enables the joy of discovery to rediscover centuries-old forms of play and bring them back to life.

literature

  • Barbara Burian-Langegger (Ed.): Doctor games, the sexuality of the child . Picus, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85452-495-1 .
  • Diercke: Entdeckerspiel , Westermann, Braunschweig undated, ISBN 978-3-14-100830-2 .
  • Hans Hoppe: Games Finding and Inventing. A guide to game practice. Lit, 2nd edition, Berlin 2011, ISBN 3-8258-9651-X .
  • Andrea Hündlings: Exciting water experiments for 3- to 6-year-olds , Verlag an der Ruhr, Mülheim o. J., ISBN 978-3-8346-3611-9 .
  • Andrea Hündlings: Exciting air experiments for 3 to 6 year olds , Verlag an der Ruhr, Mülheim 2018.
  • Anita Rudolf, Siegbert A. Warwitz: Playing - rediscovered. Basics-suggestions-help . Freiburg 1982. ISBN 3-451-07952-6 .
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Spielimpulse , In: Dies .: From the sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . Schneider Verlag, 4th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1291-3 , pp. 210–249.
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Playing to meet other peoples - cultural anthropological games , In: This .: From the sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . Schneider Verlag, 4th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1291-3 , pp. 118-126.

Web links

Wiktionary: Discovery game  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: How play comes about and why people play , In: Dies .: From the sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . Schneider Verlag, 4th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 8-18.
  2. ↑ Frederik Jacobus Johannes Buytendijk: Nature and meaning of the game. The play of humans and animals as a manifestation of the life instincts . Wolff, Berlin 1933.
  3. ↑ Andrea Hündlings: Exciting water experiments for 3- to 6-year-olds , Verlag an der Ruhr, Mülheim o. J.
  4. ↑ Andrea Hündlings: Exciting air experiments for 3 to 6 year olds , Verlag an der Ruhr, Mülheim 2018.
  5. ↑ Anita Rudolf, Siegbert A. Warwitz: Playing - newly discovered. Basics-suggestions-help . Freiburg 1982.
  6. ↑ Hans Hoppe: Games find and invent. A guide to game practice. Lit, 2nd edition, Berlin 2011
  7. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Spielimpulse , In: Dies .: Vom Sinn des Spielens. Reflections and game ideas . Schneider Verlag, 4th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 210–249.
  8. ↑ Barbara Burian-Langegger (Ed.): Doctor games, the sexuality of the child . Picus, Vienna 2005
  9. ^ Diercke: Entdeckerspiel , Westermann, Braunschweig o. J.
  10. ↑ Karin Finan: Great Explorers, Their Journeys and Adventures , Tessloff Verlag, Nuremberg 2016.
  11. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: We create a game for ourselves on the way to school. First grader in an interdisciplinary project . In: Case-Word-Number 30/2002/47 pp. 23-27
  12. ↑ Silke Jensch: Nature as an occasion to play, play space and play partner , Scientific State Examination Work GHS, Karlsruhe 2001
  13. ↑ Nadine Kutzli: Jungle Experience. Create a jungle festival with students . Scientific state examination work GHS, Karlsruhe 1998
  14. ↑ Virtual games
  15. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Playing encounter earlier times - Historical games , In: This: From the sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . Schneider Verlag, 4th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 107–118.
  16. ↑ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Playing to meet other peoples - cultural anthropological games , In: This .: From the sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . Schneider Verlag, 4th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 118–126
  17. ↑ Erika Szegedi: Games of other times and peoples - further developed with children , scientific examination work GHS, Karlsruhe 1999
  18. ↑ Hans Hoppe: Games find and invent. A guide to game practice. Lit, 2nd edition, Berlin 2011