Motivating Students in the Biology Classroom via Games

Abstract

In recent decades, the increased use of digital games by students at all education levels has attracted the attention of many researchers interested in the effect games used in the classroom have on learning. Despite the strong interest internationally in the use of educational games in the teaching of Biology, in Greece the degree of corresponding research is limited. The purpose of our research is to examine the effect that games have on Greek high school students’ acquisition and retention of knowledge relating to genetics concepts. The sample consisted of 32 K-9 students, who were divided into two groups. In the first group, the chosen teaching approach was based on the traditional teaching method, while in the second group, it was based on the use of an educational genetics card game. All students completed the same assessment test both before and immediately after the teaching interventions. Based on the results, it was found that both approaches yielded statistically similar learning outcomes, with students in the group taught by the game-teaching approach performing better on average than those in the control group.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0048/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Find the Plant—An Educational Game Fosters Plant Species Literacy

“…Participants who had played the 'Find the Plant' game were rather convinced of the beneficial effects of the game on plant species knowledge, and attributed their perceived increase in plant identification skills to the game. However, without a control group it cannot be ruled out that the lecture alone would have produced a similar result; as in [44]. The 54 students who did not take the posttest and presumably did not play the game could have expanded their knowledge of plant species in the same way as the game players.…”

“…Educational games give students the opportunity to actively learn, which promotes learning motivation as well as knowledge acquisition and retention [39,44,45]. Through the exchange with fellow students, what has previously been heard is reproduced, discussed and, if necessary, corrected, and learning content can be successfully processed and retained [46,47].…”

“…Educational games can be designed for use on digital devices or as non-digital games such as card, dice or board games [53]. While several studies have investigated the impact of non-digital games on high school students' knowledge of physiology, cell biology or genetics, e.g., [44,46,54,55] and university students' knowledge of medicine, e.g., [56,57], hardly any study has examined the impact of games on plant species literacy. In one study on plant identification, university students and other adults played a card game in which they had to match cards according to visual characteristics or similarities in names, with the cards showing color images of plants [49].…”