Insects GO: a gaming activity for entomology teaching in middle school

ABSTRACT

Background

Gamification is the use of game design elements, such as rules of play, point scoring and competition, in a non-game context, in learning activities. We designed a game, based on the famous augmented reality game Pokémon GO, called Insects GO in which players should capture images of real insects with their mobile phones.

Purpose

The hypothesis was that if students had to struggle in the search for information about the world of insects to fulfill tasks of a game, they could develop skills that would potentialise scientific knowledge on insect morphology and nomenclature and make them more attentive to the issues on the subject.

Sample

The study has been conducted in a middle school with students aged 11 to 15 enrolled in the 6th to 9th years of middle school, totaling 21 students.

Design and methods

This research is a case study and has been evaluated through a learning test called the History Word Association Test (HWAT) that quantitatively ascertains students’ perceptions about their conceptions, in this case, regarding entomology. The interest and motivation of students in performing the activity were evaluated using ARCS model of motivational design.

Results

Students who participated in the proposed activity showed be motivated to play the game and the, learning test suggests an improvement in matters related to morphology, taxonomy and the insect life cycle.

Conclusion

The Insect Go game seems to improve the learning of entomology in middle school.

KEYWORDS:

• M-learning
• gamification
• entomology
• biology teaching

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Nossa Senhora de Fátima Elementary school for allowing the study with their students.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/02635143.2021.1921724.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by research grants and fellowships from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq [421255/2018-8]; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) and PRONEX-FAPERGS [16/2551 – 0000 499-4].