Microsoft's Minesweeper: Develops Problem Solving and Critical Thinking Skills

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Outline

Introduction: Psychic powers? That is what an observer might think while watching someone find the bombs while playing Minesweeper; however, it is really a skill acquired through experience.

I. Minesweeper Background Information

II. Minesweeper Game Details

A. Beginning the Game

B. Types of spaces

C. Levels of Play

III. Minesweeper Develops These Skills

A. Poblem Solving

B. Critical Thinking Skills

IV. How Minesweeper Is Useful In Life

A. Job Environment

B. Critical Thinking Skills

Conclusion: Minesweeper has been proven to be a good alternative for achieving the crucial problem solving and critical thinking skills that are needed in life. Problem solving is an asset to the person who is able to apply it to any given situation.

Microsoft's Minesweeper: Develops Problem Solving

And Critical Thinking Skills

Psychic powers? That is what an observer might think while watching someone find the bombs while playing Minesweeper; however, it is really a skill acquired through experience. Microsoft's Minesweeper is a game of strategy that is a mind-boggling puzzle to a beginner, but it can teach a player the process of problem solving and logical deduction. In addition it is a challenging game that is complex and difficult to learn, and therefore it develops critical thinking skills.

Microsoft's Minesweeper was created by Robert Donner in 1989. (Donner) Prior to this there was a game in which a player had to click on a grid of squares and try to get form one side to the other without being blown up. A modern version of this game is known as Bomb Sweeper. It probably influenced Donner with some of the ideas for his own game. Bill Gates liked Donner's game so much that he included it as one of several logic based games in the Windows Operating System. Donner may not have realized that people would find his game so entertaining.

The game begins with a left click of the mouse on the minefield. A minefield is a grid of cells that contain randomly placed mines (see figure 1). The minefield in a beginner game is nine by nine cells and has a total of ten hidden bombs. The main objective of the game is to locate all of the bombs without exploding one since the game ends when that happens.

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