Having fun, playing games and learning biology

It seems as if the idea of having fun and playing games tends to become less import as we make the transition from primary school to secondary school and then on to higher education. Once examinations get in the way there is an assumption that ‘we have to be serious now’ and focus on the learning. And yet, anecdotally, it seems that learning is so much easier when we are having fun and playing games than when we are sitting and concentrating on our learning. Maybe we are missing a trick if we do not consider the fun aspect of learning and explore games to teach the most complicated of ideas (as explored by Pieternella Luttikhuizen in this issue).

Of course, higher education has felt the need to reverse engineer the fun back into student learning and so now we talk about ‘gamification’ of the curriculum and the use of ‘serious games’. There are a number of studies that have looked into the value of games and shown that they can have a positive impact on learning (see Viacopoulos and Makri 2017 for a review).

Like any classroom innovation, it is not a panacea, and the unreflective application of a game into a classroom environment is unlikely to achieve the desired improvement on student learning outcomes. Lameras et al. (2017) have considered the nature of game mechanics and the ways in which they may support various learning activities. In addition, they consider the importance of the teacher’s role in designing and in playing a game; the need to consider the issue of feedback to students and how this will be achieved in a game environment, and how student motivation can be harness to maximise engagement. Finally, we need to see this as a potential activity that can be developed in partnership with students and invite them to provide feedback to us.

Many Biologists started on their educational journey because they saw the intrinsic fun in the subject: through playing with their pet animals, growing plants in the garden or watching wildlife documentaries on the TV. Perhaps games are a way of putting the fun back into spaces where the serious side of learning has taken over.

Ian M. Kinchin
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