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

Abstract

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.

The Effects of Augmented Reality on Elementary School Students’ Spatial Ability and Academic Achievement

“…AG uygulamalarına ilişkin sunulan arayüzler karmaşık olduğunda öğrenciler bu sistemleri kullanmakta zorluk çekmektedirler (Squire ve Jan, 2007). Bu nedenle bu araştırmada oldukça sade ve kullanışlı bir arayüz sunan BuildAR programı tercih edilmiştir.…”

Situationally embodied curriculum: Relating formalisms and contexts

“…To appreciate how videogame contexts provide a platform for supporting situative embodiment with respect to a particular context-of-use, consider some of the game features that Squire and Jan (2007) highlights as relevant to science education. First, games invite students to inhabit roles and take on identities that are a melding between the player identity and the game role of that player.…”

The Effect of Socioscientific Topics on Discourse within an Online Game Designed to Engage Middle School Students in Scientific Argumentation

“…Her further analysis, consistent with the views of Gee and others, suggests that the chat conversations in MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games) have the same level of complexity as off-line language. Because of the suitability of the online chat environment to engage players, particularly youth, in discourse, a number of researchers have recognized that chat, within a game environment, is a suitable space for the development of scientific argumentation skills & discourse (Squire & Jan, 2007;Steinkuehler & Chmiel, 2006).…”