EDUC 730 GAME-BASED LEARNING

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School

Liberty University *

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Course

730

Subject

Mechanical Engineering

Date

Apr 3, 2024

Type

docx

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Uploaded by CoachRamMaster1420

Game-based learning has effectively engaged undergraduate students in STEM education (Robertson, 2021; Shernoff et al., 2020). My favorite students to teach are undergraduate non- science majors. I have always considered it an opportunity to change their view on how important and fun science can be. One of the ways I do that is through game-based learning. When teaching Integrated Science, I break my class into small groups. Our class has a science Olympics competition, and the winning team goes against the winners from the other sections of this course. I have been doing this for about ten years. My experience has been, as studies have found, that competition and collaboration encourage student engagement (Sung & Hwang, 2013). The concepts are taught during lectures and then applied during lab, where items are designed and made for competition. There are various events where each group's designs are pitted against the other to determine which team is the best. The building of items and the Olympics are game-based learning because competition, rewards (medals), and collaboration encourage engagement and learning (Schrum & Sumerfield, 2018). The Science Olympics have evolved over the years as students and professors suggest better competition rules, judging criteria, special awards, and assessment tools. Being open to student and faculty suggestions made the games more engaging and fun. To be effective and successful, educators need to consider cost and time. The best part of this format is that when students leave the course, they recognize how science affects their everyday lives and have a positive outlook on science. Honestly, I did not know there was a term for what I was doing when I started. I was just looking to help students understand why learning science was essential and show them how fun it could be. More recently, game-based learning in STEM has gone digital and proven successful compared to traditional multimedia learning (Zeng et al., 2020). Although the digital format is popular, there is the issue of skills to develop and implement game- based exercises. Additionally, there can be technological barriers. Studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of using gaming to engage students. Students learn in many ways. I would encourage utilizing a variety of tools to help educate reach as many students as possible. References Robertson, W. M. (2021). Increasing student engagement and comprehension of the global water cycle through game-based learning in undergraduate courses. Journal of Geoscience Education , 70 (2), 161–175. https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2021.1977030 Schrum, L., & Sumerfield, S. (2018). Learning Supercharged: Digital Age Strategies and insights from the edtech frontier . International Society for Technology in Education. Shernoff, D. J., Ryu, J.-C., Ruzek, E., Coller, B., & Prantil, V. (2020). The transportability of a game-based learning approach to undergraduate mechanical engineering education: Effects on student conceptual understanding, engagement, and experience. Sustainability , 12 (17), 6986. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12176986

Sung, H.-Y., & Hwang, G.-J. (2013). A collaborative game-based learning approach to improving students' learning performance in science courses. Computers & Education , 63 , 43–51. https ://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.11.019 Zeng, H., Zhou, S.-N., Hong, G.-R., Li, Q., & Xu, S.-Q. (2020). Evaluation of interactive game-based learning in the physics domain. Journal of Baltic Science Education , 19 (3), 484–498. https://doi.org/10.33225/jbse/20.19.484

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