Games in an Introductory Soil Science Course: A Novel Approach for Increasing Student Involvement with Course Material

Abstract

An optional 1-credit recitation course was developed to supplement a traditionally taught 4-credit lecture-plus-laboratory course in soil science at Oregon State University. Popular, competitive games that would be familiar to students were revised to be soils-based and were employed in the recitation class. These games were seen as a potential means to use knowledge in an atypical fashion while at the same time generating enthusiasm for the subject. Evaluation of two terms of games implementation showed that these activities increased both student enthusiasm and, potentially, course performance. A greater percentage of students in the games-oriented recitation reported high enthusiasm for the subject matter than did those in the lecture course (92 vs. 80.5%). Although most students commented favorably on the approach, some did not like the competitive aspect and fast pace. Moreover, those who took the optional recitation scored significantly higher (7.5%) on the final exam for the co-requisite lecture course than those who did not take the optional recitation despite the fact that the overall mean GPA of the two groups was similar (p = 0.30). Whether or not the grade increase is specifically due to the use of games or to the additional hour in the classroom was not evaluated. Rather, the purpose of this paper is to present the idea of games as a meaningful complement to more traditional classroom methods, even at the college level.