The logic gate board game for promoting intrinsic motivation and understanding in the science museum

Mostly, in museums, logic gates were communicated by permanent exhibits. Our logic gate board game was created to be an alternative for communicating the content and developing children’s self-motivation. Three logic gates—AND, OR, and NOT—were embedded in the board game. The main goal was to encourage the children to create their own strategies to complete a mission by using conditions (gates). A fairy tale was used to engage the children to play the game. We investigated children’s understanding and intrinsic motivation after playing the board game. The participants were 21 primary children (grades 4– 6) who participated in a one-day camp at the science museum. They were introduced the rules and the context of the game before playing the game. During the gameplay, their interactions were observed. They were assessed by completing the test and the survey consecutively. Then, a debriefing session was held at the end of the assessment. Some were interviewed to investigate both their understanding and motivation. The results of the survey and interview show the success in promoting the children’s intrinsic motivation particularly, the enjoyment, concentration, and interest. From the observation, it seems that the children were completely focused throughout the game. Besides, most students could develop their understanding of the logic gates through the board game. Supported by the interview result, the children mentioned the strategy they used to complete the mission which required their logical thinking. However, it seems that the children still could not apply knowledge gained from the board game to the real-life problem.