Abstract

There is a perceived association between playing of the operation board game and high hand-eye coordination. This paper aims to ascertain the factuality of this statement by an empirical analysis. The study employs sixteen participants drawn from an elementary school and between the ages of ten and fifteen years. The research is based around a cross sectional experimental design but draws upon data from the participants past. Each participant is tested for the number of times they manage to catch a tennis ball that they throw against a wall in thirty seconds. Data collection is done through a questionnaire and personal observation with the help of the researcher and three assistants.

Research Hypothesis

Using the Operation board game toy enhances hand eye coordination among children.

Participants

The study will use sixteen participants drawn from Eastside Elementary School between the ages of ten and fifteen years to test their hand eye coordination. Half the participants (eight) have regularly played the operation board game with the other eight having no experience whatsoever with the game. The participants will be grouped into two depending on their past interaction with the game to form two sets of participants. In each group, there will be four boys and four girls to ensure an equal gender representation. The rationale for the selection is based on a representative sample of an entire school. Further, the high number of participants is important in increasing the diversity of participants and the factual collection of results (Altmann, 1974).

All the participants in the experiment will be sourced from upper classes in elementary level of education. Further seven of the participants were Caucasian with five others being Asians and another four being African Americans. The youngest participant will be ten years of age with the oldest being fifteen years old. All the participants have a good command of the English language as that is a requirement for joining the school anyway. It is expected that the median age will be twelve years of age and the mode being twelve and a half years of age. Overall, the participants included in the study will sum up to sixteen children with eight of these children having participated in regular playing of operation board game.

Sampling

The study employs a random sampling method to select eight girls and eight boys drawn from the upper classes of elementary school. Prior to the random selection, children from all the upper classes were made to write their names on a piece of paper and a ruffle draw conducted to select the participants. However, there were two ruffle draws to ensure an equal number of boys and girls in the study. Overall, more than a hundred participants expressed their interest in taking part in the study. However, only sixteen participants were selected to take part in the study. During the course of the sampling process, selected participants will be compensated through free lunch.

Ethics Statement

In conducting the study, the researcher will first seek approval from the Carleton University Committee. Prior to the commencement of the study, the participants will be required to have a written consent form signed by their parents on their behalf. In addition, the participants will be informed of the processes that will be undertaken in the study and will be given the option of opting out during the experimentation period. Further, information collected from the participants will be held in confidence and no personal information will be disclosed to third parties. In this regard, the names of participants will not be included in the study and reference to participants will only be done through abbreviations.

Measures

The study uses personal information to measure the demographics of the participants involved in the study. For instance, the age, sex and race will be used to paint a picture of the participants’ background. Further, information on the participants past experience with the operation board game is also tested. Again, participants will be required to take a test in which their hand eye coordination will be conducted. In this test, each participant is to be given 30 seconds to continuously throw a tennis ball to the wall using one hand and catch it with the other hand for as many times as they can. The number of times that a participant manages to catch the tennis ball within the allocated time of thirty seconds is then recorded. The different variables will be collected through the use of a questionnaire as well as observation. Since all the participants could speak fluent English, there was no need for translation into another language or back-translation into English.

The choice of variables in this experiment is driven by the need for accurate data collection and conformity in the process. The reliability and validity of the measuring instruments is however in question owing to the fact that it is subject to human distortion. Particularly, the use of personal observation may face internal bias as participants strive to outdo fellow participants (Mann, 2003). Also, participants may lie on their experience with the operation board game through mischievous tendencies. In addition, the researcher may be biased in the observation since they already have a predetermined outcome formulated in the hypothesis. In dealing with these concerns, the study aims to use more than one researcher in recording the observations and then comparing the same before actual recording.

Research Design

The study will employ an experimental design in testing whether past experience in operation board game resulted in better hand-eye coordination. In addition, the study will use a cross sectional research design because of the limitation of time. However, data and information from the children’s past will be used in conducting the experiment. The participants will be tested for their hand-eye coordination using the tennis ball experiment. Each of the participants will be required to show proof of their involvement with the operation board game in the past. To prove this, the researcher will have to call each parent to ascertain that the participant had prior experience with the game throughout their childhood. These participants will have had prior experience with the operation board game and will be expected to have higher hand-eye coordination. A control population of participants with no prior experience with the game will be used to compare the results of the experiment.

The experiment is to be conducted in a room with each participant having their chance to take part in the experiment. Every participant will be required to hold the ball with their right hand and throw it against the wall before catching it with the left hand. Immediately, the participants should throw the ball again from the left hand and then catch it with the right hand. Continuously, the process is to be repeated within thirty seconds and the number of times that the participant catches the ball recorded. The conditions of the experiment were administered to each of the participants such that equal conditions were accorded to all the participants. The compositions of the experiment and the control sample were similar in terms of gender and number.

Data Collection

The process of data collection will be administered through two methods of questionnaire and personal observation. Data collection will be done by the researcher with the help of three assistants from the participants. While the questionnaire will be used to generate data on the participants’ personal information, observations will be used in detailing the results of the study. The questionnaires will be administered by the researcher with each participant filling one questionnaire. However, the questionnaire will be filled by the researcher because of the relatively low level of education of the participants. After the filling of the questionnaire is completed, the participant will sign the duly filled form for use in the experiment. The choice of a questionnaire is informed by the fact that the respondents are expected to be highly cooperative. In addition, the simple nature of the research means that participants can correctly fill the questionnaire with minimal errors.

Besides questionnaires, the study will also be based on personal observations to record data from the participants. In particular, the number of times that a participant manages to catch the tennis ball after throwing it against a wall is to be recorded by the researcher. However, three assistants will help in the recording of observed data to ensure high levels of accuracy and to minimize bias on the part of the researchers. The choice of this method of data collection is based on the notion that it is highly accurate and practical in this type of study. The collection of data was done within the allotted room within the elementary school. By choosing the same location, the study ensures that similar conditions prevail on all the participants thus ensuring uniformity during data collection.

References

Mann, C. J. (2003). Observational research methods. Research design II: cohort, cross sectional, and case-control studies. Emergency medicine journal, 20(1), 54-60.

Altmann, J. (1974). Observational study of behavior: sampling methods. Behaviour, 49(3), 227-266.

 
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