Mobile Gaming and Student Interactions in a Science Center: the Future of Gaming in Science Education

This article explores the impact of an augmented reality iPad-based mobile game, called The Great STEM Caper, on students’ interaction at a science center. An open-source, location-based game platform called ARIS (i.e. Augmented Reality and Interactive Storytelling) was used to create an iPad-based mobile game. The game used QR scan codes and a challenge-based game structure to encourage engagement in science. Participants wore head-mounted GoPro cameras to record interactions within the physical and social environment. The purpose of this research was to study the impact of a mobile game on student interactions in a science center. Gender differences in gameplay behaviors and perceptions were compared. The study included a quasi-experimental design with two groups: one group that played the iPad mobile game during their science center visit, and one group that explored the science center in a traditional free exploration manner. Video data from the GoPro cameras provided examination of the different ways students interacted with the science center. The female students outperformed the male students on every measure of the iPad game achievement. Lazzaro’s (2004) four types of fun was used to describe the gender differences in game perceptions and interactions. Females tended to enjoy hard fun and collaborative people fun, while males enjoyed easy fun and competitive people fun. The females tended to be more goal-oriented, persistent in the face of difficulty, and appreciative of hard fun. The results of this study have implications for the design of mobile-based gaming technology to encourage interaction in an informal science center setting.     

Mad City Mystery: Developing Scientific Argumentation Skills with a Place-based Augmented Reality Game on Handheld Computers

While the knowledge economy has reshaped the world, schools lag behind in producing appropriate learning for this social change. Science education needs to prepare students for a future world in which multiple representations are the norm and adults are required to “think like scientists.” Location-based augmented reality games offer an opportunity to create a “post-progressive” pedagogy in which students are not only immersed in authentic scientific inquiry, but also required to perform in adult scientific discourses. This cross-case comparison as a component of a design-based research study investigates three cases (roughly 28 students total) where an Augmented Reality curriculum, Mad City Mystery, was used to support learning in environmental science. We investigate whether augmented reality games on handhelds can be used to engage students in scientific thinking (particularly argumentation), how game structures affect students’ thinking, the impact of role playing on learning, and the role of the physical environment in shaping learning. We argue that such games hold potential for engaging students in meaningful scientific argumentation. Through game play, players are required to develop narrative accounts of scientific phenomena, a process that requires them to develop and argue scientific explanations. We argue that specific game features scaffold this thinking process, creating supports for student thinking non-existent in most inquiry-based learning environments.     

Augmented Reality Simulations on Handheld Computers

Advancements in handheld computing, particularly its portability, social interactivity, context sensitivity, connectivity, and individuality, open new opportunities for immersive learning environments. This article articulates the pedagogical potential of augmented reality simulations in environmental engineering education by immersing students in the roles of scientists conducting investigations. This design experiment examined if augmented reality simulation games can be used to help students understand science as a social practice, whereby inquiry is a process of balancing and managing resources, combining multiple data sources, and forming and revising hypotheses in situ. We provide 4 case studies of secondary environmental science students participating in the program. Positioning students in virtual investigations made apparent their beliefs about science and confronted simplistic beliefs about the nature of science. Playing the game in “real” space also triggered students' preexisting knowledge, suggesting that a powerful potential of augmented reality simulation games can be in their ability to connect academic content and practices with students' physical, lived worlds. The game structure provided students a narrative to think with, although students differed in their ability to create a coherent narrative of events. We argue that Environmental Detectives is 1 model for helping students understand the socially situated nature of scientific practice.     

Learning in a game-based virtual environment: a comparative evaluation in higher education

The authors define the requirements and a conceptual model for comparative evaluation research of simulation games and serious games (SGs) in a learning context. A first operationalisation of the model was used to comparatively evaluate a suite of 14 SGs on varying topics played between 2004 and 2009 in 13 institutes of higher education in the Netherlands. The questions in this research were: what is the perceived learning effectiveness of the games and what factors explain it? How can we comparatively evaluate games for learning? Data were gathered through pre- and post-game questionnaires among 1000 students, leading to 500 useful datasets and 230 complete datasets for analysis (factor analysis, scaling, t-test and correlation analysis) to give an explorative, structural model. The findings are discussed and a number of propositions for further research are formulated. The conclusion of the analysis is that the students’ motivation and attitudes towards game-based learning before the game, their actual enjoyment, their efforts during the game and the quality of the facilitator/teacher are most strongly correlated with their learning satisfaction. The degree to which the experiences during the game were translated back into the underlying theories significantly determines the students’ learning satisfaction. The quality of the virtual game environment did not matter so much. The authors reflect upon the general methodology used and offer suggestions for further research and development.     

Learning science by doing science: an authentic science process-learning model in postsecondary education

Research on understanding the full extent that an authentic science research experience engages students in how scientists think and act is sparse. ‘Learning-science-by-doing-science’ (LSDS) is an emerging self-guided process-learning model in postsecondary science education. It offers authentic science research opportunities that drive students to think and act like scientists. This study investigates the LSDS approach as a potential model for science learning at postsecondary level and aims to answer a main research inquiry – what are the students’ and teaching staff’s perceptions of students’ learning gains and the quality of their learning experiences in an authentic research environment within the LSDS model? To answer this question, data were collected from the students, alumni, instructors, teaching assistants and the program director via questionnaires, focus groups and interviews. Students’ and staff’s lived experiences and their perceptions on their authentic research experiences within the LSDS model were used to articulate the key attributes and stages of the LSDS model. The outcomes of this study can be used to help other science programs implement similar authentic research process learning approaches in their own contexts.     

Realising the Potential of an Authentic Context to Understand the Characteristics of NOS and NOT: You,me and UV

A group of preservice primary teachers (46) in their third year of a Bachelor of Education degree were overtly taught the nature of science (NOS) and nature of technology (NOT) within an authentic context of the issues of UV radiation. The research question asked was, ‘What characteristics of NOS and NOT are identified, illustrated and justified within an authentic context by the preservice teachers?’ This context was accessed via a web-based resource, ‘You, Me and UV’ (www.sciencelearn.org.nz), which provided preservice teachers with virtual access to the science research community. The goal of this research was to explore the potential of providing a virtual authentic resource, accompanied by explicit teaching of NOS and NOT, to develop preservice teachers' understandings of NOS and NOT. A data collection instrument where preservice teachers were required not only to identify examples of NOS and NOT, but also to justify and contextualise them from this context, was able to capture their level of understanding. It also showed the potential of an authentic context and the possibilities of a virtual resource to provide access to communities of practice of science and technology research.     

Cultivation of science identity through authentic science in an urban high school classroom

This study examined how a contextually based authentic science experience affected the science identities of urban high school students who have been marginalized during their K-12 science education. We examined students’ perceptions of the intervention as an authentic science experience, how the experience influenced their science identity, as well as their perceptions about who can do science. We found that the students believed the experience to be one of authentic science, that their science identity was positively influenced by participation in the experience, and that they demonstrated a shift in perceptions from stereotypical to more diverse views of scientists. Implications for science education are discussed.     

二十世纪中国留学生与科技发展

20世纪中国赴海外的留学生回国后，在各自的领域做出了突出贡献。他们积极传播科学，组织科学社团；传播新思潮，开启新风气；发展科学，创立学说；兴办产业，服务社会；走向世界，开展科技、教育、文化交流，对中国的科学技术发展发挥了巨大的作用。     

Students’ Representations of Scientific Practice during a Science Internship: Reflections from an activity‐theoretic perspective

Working at scientists’ elbows is one suggestion that educators make to improve science education, because such “authentic experiences” provide students with various types of science knowledge. However, there is an ongoing debate in the literature about the assumption that authentic science activities can enhance students’ understandings of scientific practice. The purpose of the study is to further address the debate in terms of the ethnographic data collected during an internship programme for high school students right through to their public presentations at the end. Drawing on activity theory to analyse these presentations, we found that students presented scientific practice as accomplished by individual personnel without collaboration in the laboratory. However, our ethnographic data of their internship interaction show that students have had conversations about the complex collaborations within and outside the laboratory. This phenomenon leads us to claim that students experienced authentic science in their internships, but their subsequent representations of authentic science are incomplete. That is, participating in authentic science internships and reporting scientific practice are embedded activities that constitute different goals and conditions rather than unrefracted reflections of one another. The debate on the influence on students’ understanding of science practice is not simply related to situating students in authentic science contexts, but also related to students’ values and ideology of reporting their understanding of and about science. To help students see these “invisible” moments of science practice is therefore crucial. We make suggestions for how the invisible in and of authentic science may be made visible.     

Sensor-Augmented Virtual Labs: Using Physical Interactions with Science Simulations to Promote Understanding of Gas Behavior

Deep learning of science involves integration of existing knowledge and normative science concepts. Past research demonstrates that combining physical and virtual labs sequentially or side by side can take advantage of the unique affordances each provides for helping students learn science concepts. However, providing simultaneously connected physical and virtual experiences has the potential to promote connections among ideas. This paper explores the effect of augmenting a virtual lab with physical controls on high school chemistry students’ understanding of gas laws. We compared students using the augmented virtual lab to students using a similar sensor-based physical lab with teacher-led discussions. Results demonstrate that students in the augmented virtual lab condition made significant gains from pretest and posttest and outperformed traditional students on some but not all concepts. Results provide insight into incorporating mixed-reality technologies into authentic classroom settings.     

Children’s Participation in a Virtual Epidemic in the Science Classroom: Making Connections to Natural Infectious Diseases

This study investigated students’ understanding of a virtual infectious disease in relation to their understanding of natural infectious diseases. Two sixth-grade classrooms of students between the ages of 10 and 12 (46 students) took part in a participatory simulation of a virtual infectious disease, which was integrated into their science curriculum. The results from our analyses reveal that students perceived the simulation as similar to a natural infectious disease and that the immersive components of the simulation afforded students the opportunity to discuss their understandings of natural disease and to compare them to their experiences with the virtual disease. We found that while the virtual disease capitalized on students’ knowledge of natural infectious disease through virtual symptoms, these symptoms may have led students to think of its transfer more as an observable or mechanical event rather than as a biological process. These findings provide helpful indicators to science educators and educational designers interested in creating and integrating online simulations within classroom environments to further students’ conceptual understanding.     

Investigating Engagement and Flow with a Placed-Based Immersive Virtual Reality Game

An immersive virtual reality (iVR) game for high school students to learn about locations in their watershed with a primary focus on their city was designed and developed, employing a design model that focuses on flow. An exploratory study with the iVR game was conducted in an urban school in the eastern USA with 57 adolescents ages 16–18 from a population that is economically disadvantaged and includes students who are typically unengaged in traditional school-based learning environments. After game completion, the participants completed a 10-item survey measuring elements of flow and a 12-item survey designed to measure perceptions toward learning with VR games, immersion and presence. Participant focus groups were conducted with an emphasis on features that promoted engagement, learning, immersion, and presence. The findings revealed that all students experienced a flow state when they played the iVR learning game. Almost all users (98.1%) had positive attitudes towards using the iVR game. Students experienced high immersion and presence. In addition, students had favorable attitudes towards learning with iVR games in school environments.

     

An investigation into excellent tertiary teaching: Emphasising reflective practice

This study is an attempt to understand betterthe complex nature of tertiary teaching byidentifying and investigating the attributes ofa group of excellent teachers in sciencedepartments of the University. In working withthis group of teachers we examined what theysay about their teaching and what theydo in their teaching practice. Ourfindings, as well as confirming much of theexisting literature at primary, secondary andtertiary levels, emphasise the strong linkbetween the teaching practice and researchcommitment of our excellent science teachers;as well as the key roles played byinterpersonal relationships and the `person' ofthe teacher. We propose that purposefulreflective practice integrates the manydimensions of teaching for this group ofexcellent science teachers. We present atheoretical model that can be used to assistnovice or less experienced university academicsin their development and understanding ofteaching excellence at the tertiary level.     

当代影视作品中的人物形象对大学生思想行为的影响

文章借用传播学的视角,结合目前电影市场的最新动态,从人物在电影中的核心作用、电影的传播特点、影视作品的教育功能等方面阐述了当代影视作品中的人物形象对大学生思想行为的影响,努力探索高校思想政治教育工作的新渠道,提高思想政治教育工作的实效性。     

From scientific practice to high school science classrooms: Transfer of scientific technologies and realizations of authentic inquiry

The Biology Workbench (BW) is a web‐based tool enabling scientists to search a wide array of protein and nucleic acid sequence databases with integrated access to a variety of analysis and modeling tools. The present study examined the development of this scientific tool and its consequent adoption into the context of high school science teaching in the form of the Biology Student Workbench (BSW). Participants included scientists, programmers, science educators, and science teachers who played key roles along the pathway of the design and development of BW, and/or the adaptation and implementation of BSW in high school science classrooms. Participants also included four teachers who, with their students, continue to use BSW. Data sources included interviews, classroom observations, and relevant artifacts. Contrary to what often is advocated as a major benefit accruing from the integration of authentic scientific tools into precollege science teaching, classroom enactments of BSW lacked elements of inquiry and were teacher‐centered with prescribed convergent activities. Students mostly were preoccupied with following instructions and a focus on science content. The desired and actual realizations of BSW fell on two extremes that reflected the disparity between scientists' and educators' views on science, inquiry science teaching, and the related roles of technological tools. Research on large‐scale adoptions of technological tools into precollege science classrooms needs to expand beyond its current focus on teacher knowledge, skills, beliefs, and practices to examine the role of the scientists, researchers, and teacher educators who often are involved in such adoptions. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 37–70, 2011     

增强现实的技术类型与教育应用

增强现实是真实世界与虚拟环境相结合的系统,其显示技术经历了头盔式、光学反射式、手持式、全息投影等技术类型。增强现实的教育应用,涵盖网页浏览与信息获取、三维导航与教学游戏、虚拟仿真与互动教学等多种领域,蕴含着丰富认知、突破时空、实时互动等教育价值。     

The value of an emergent notion of authenticity: Examples from two student/teacher–scientist partnership programs

We make the case for an emergent notion of authenticity of science based on systems theory and neo‐Piagetian thought. We propose that authentic science is an emergent property of a dynamic system of learning precipitated by the interactions among students, teachers, and scientists that occur within the contexts defined by the internal and external constraints of the cultures of the schools and communities within which they operate. Authenticity as an emergent property of the learning process challenges the basis for many science curricula and current pedagogical practices that take scientists' science as their norm and that assume a priori that such is authentic, i.e., it practices preauthentication. We argue that what constitutes authentic science can be taught neither in the traditional didactic modes nor through simulations of scientists' science in the classroom. Instead, authenticity needs to be seen as emergent and as diverse in meaning. To illustrate this point, we draw from two different face‐to‐face, teacher/student–scientist partnership programs. Both studies support a notion of authenticity that emerges as teachers, students, and scientists come to interact, make meaning of, and come to own the activities they engage in collaboratively. We conclude by considering the implications of such an analysis for science education. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 737–756, 2003     

Teaching intelligent design or sparking interest in science? What players do with Will Wright’s Spore

The 2008 commercial video game Spore allowed more than a million players to design their own life forms. Starting from single-celled organisms players played through a caricature of natural history. Press coverage of the game??s release offer two frames for thinking about the implications of the game. Some scientists and educators saw the game as a troubling teacher of intelligent design, while others suggested it might excite public interest in science. This paper explores the extent to which these two ways of thinking about the game are consistent with what players have done with the game in its online community. This analysis suggests that, at least for the players participating in this community, the game has not seduced them into believing in intelligent design. Instead the activities of these players suggest that the game has played a catalytic role in engaging the public with science. These findings indicate that designers of educational games may wish to consider more deeply tensions between prioritizing accuracy of content in educational games over player engagement.     

Stories tell but words conceal—Aspects of historiographical research

The author has been invited to write a history of the Science Teachers Association of Victoria which celebrates its 50th year in 1993. He explores the idea of a useful history which addresses present-future concerns which persist, and contrasts this with an authentic history of the past committed to understanding a period. What can be enlisted to help us respond to our current dilemmas are the emblematic characters amongst the agents of change to whom we can speak, and there are the artefacts and their meaning in contemporary discussions abstracted from the record of their past which is not restricted to their contingent circumstances or to their authentic utterances. There remains the question of how to write the history. Is it to be essentially a narrative constructed from stories or a history of ideas based on words of the ongoing conversation amongst those engaged in it, about science teaching?     

Looks Like Me,Sounds Like Me! Race,Culture, and Language in the Creation of Digital Media

The technology education movement includes the introduction and application of digital books into science classrooms. These digital books are attractive alternatives to traditional texts because they can be customized for students. This qualitative study examined 35 students as they customized their own digital books. Using a variety of digital photos and videos, each student was asked to drag and drop images into their text. The students were provided with a variety of digital photos and videos to use to customize their books. The images were identical except for the racial cues of the characters. We used content analysis of students' selections and interviews of students (N = 35). We discovered that cues about racial authenticity served as the primary motivation for students selecting particular images. As students were given options, they consistently chose images that reflected their racial, gender, and linguistic identities. The results of this study indicate the need to recognize how racial cues can help students draw deeper connections to digital media if those cues are culturally authentic. This implies that culturally authentic racial cues would spawn deeper engagement for students.