By Francesca
Hawker Culture Detective 文化小侦探
I want to design a game-based learning interactive for my students.

Grade level: Primary 5–6

Student readiness level: Mixed Abilities

The game is based on: A detective-style cultural exploration called “Hawker Culture Detective 文化小侦探.” Students explore a virtual hawker centre featuring Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Fusion stalls. They collect clues by making polite Chinese dialogues and cultural choices to solve the mystery: “Why is hawker culture central to Singapore’s shared identity?”

The objective of the game is to:

Help students describe the origins, diversity, and social role of Singapore’s Hawker Culture in Chinese.

Cultivate appreciation for multicultural harmony and respectful interactions.

Strengthen vocabulary and sentence structures related to food, customs, and social etiquette.

Guide reflection on why preserving Hawker Culture is important for national identity.

While playing the game, students should experience:

Making meaningful choices that affect story progression (choosing stalls, responding politely, identifying accurate cultural facts).

Receiving immediate feedback with cultural explanations and hints after incorrect attempts.

Building dialogues in Chinese using sentence tiles or multiple-choice responses with English tooltips.

Completing a final quiz (5–8 MCQs + 1 short Chinese reflection) to consolidate learning.

The interface should include:

A clickable map hub with four stalls and a Reflection Corner (unlocked after collecting three or more clues).

Dialogue boxes (Chinese text with English tooltips), decision buttons, and progress trackers (clues, badges, and score).

Optional timer, hint button, reset progress, and export results (JSON) options.

Accessibility features such as keyboard navigation, focus outlines, alt text, high-contrast mode, and adjustable text size.

A vocabulary bank (CN→EN hover) with key terms: 鸡饭、叻沙、椰浆饭、沙爹、印度煎饼、清真、传统、多元、融合、文化遗产、社会凝聚、礼貌用语.