Anter: Ant research institute – Three iterations of testing to develop an ant world in the palm of the hand

Abstract

Given the newly reformed recommendations calling for students’ engagement in scientific practices, we developed a learning game, entitled Anter: Ant Research Institute, for students to experiene the practices of ant scientists. The development process involved three iterations. The 1st iteration included 23 in-service science teachers (15 junior high school and 8 senior high school) to validate the game content and provide feedback to improve the game design. The 2nd iteration consisted of 103 junior high school (7th-8th grade, aged 12–14) and 95 senior high school (10th-11th grade, aged 15–17) students to evaluate the effectiveness of the game and the experiential value in gameplay. The 3rd iteration included 368 7th graders to test the behavioural learning hierarchy (“do-learn-feel”) model. The testing indicated that Anter is effective for students to acquire knowledge about ants and develop skills related to conducting ant investigations. It provided students with a positive experience of value in gameplay, supporting the theorisation of the “do-learn-feel” ordering of relationships. This successful articulation of developing Anter to reliably achieve instructional goals in systematic procedures is of benefit for game-based science learning.