Open AccessScience Hunters: teaching science concepts in schools using Minecraft
Author(s) -
Laura Hobbs,
Carly J. Stevens,
Jackie Hartley,
Mark Ashby,
Benjamin Jackson,
Lauren Bowden,
Jordan Bibby,
Sophie Bentley
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
action research and innovation in science education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2626-9902
DOI - 10.51724/arise.23
Subject(s) - outreach , session (web analytics) , subject (documents) , intervention (counseling) , mathematics education , psychology , science learning , medical education , pedagogy , science education , computer science , library science , medicine , political science , world wide web , psychiatry , law
Science Hunters is an outreach project based at Lancaster University, UK. It uses the computer game Minecraft, alongside interactive discussion and hands-on demonstrations, to engage children with scientific research topics and science learning. As part of ongoing evaluation, the efficacy of this approach as an educational intervention was tested via pre- and post-activity questionnaires for two session topics,with 492 children participating through schools in 2017 and 2018. Statistically significant mprovement in subject knowledge was seen in post-intervention scores for both topics. There was some variation in both absolute and improvement score results between boys and girls, and primary and secondary school students. Participation leads to improved subject knowledge and understanding, regardless of prior existing knowledge.