Serious educational gameplay continues to gain traction in K‐12 educational settings, as access to novel technologies increases. Increased access to computers and other devices has shifted the landscape of the classroom, increasing students' screen‐time, as technology infused lessons replace other learning experiences. Amid this context, our research team created a serious educational game (SEG) designed for elementary science learners. Previous studies have linked serious gameplay to learning gains and changes in attitudes, yet the rigor of the studies often underwhelms, as the studies lack an adequate sample size, detailed student data, or quality comparison groups. These limitations are compounded in the study of science learning in elementary schools, due to structural difficulties and student variability that impede the implementation of this type of experimentation. This research attends to this knowledge gap, as our team conducted two quasi‐experimental studies to explore the learning gains associated with Virtual Vet, a SEG designed to address the fundamental science concepts associated with the human body systems and the subsequent effect of diabetes and obesity related illnesses on the given body systems. In Study 1, students (n = 232) were randomly assigned to play Virtual Vet or participate in guided inquiry lessons that addressed the same objectives. Our study found that students in the game condition outperformed the non‐game condition. Based on this finding, we designed Study 2 to compare learning outcomes associated with two conditions: students play only Virtual Vet or students play Virtual Vet and they participate in the guided inquiry activities, which doubled the instructional time for this group. Students (n = 166) were assigned to one of the conditions and we found no significant increase in learning gains for the students who participated in both activities. These results indicate that well‐designed SEGs powerfully facilitate and support science learning in elementary settings.

中文翻译：

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一项准实验研究，比较了在小学教室中与认真的教育游戏和动手科学相关的学习收益

随着新技术的普及，严肃的教育游戏在K-12教育环境中继续受到关注。对计算机和其他设备的访问越来越多，这改变了教室的景观，增加了学生的屏幕学习时间，因为技术课程取代了其他学习经验。在这种背景下，我们的研究团队创建了一款专为基础科学学习者设计的严肃教育游戏（SEG）。先前的研究将严肃的游戏玩法与学习成果和态度的变化联系在一起，但是由于研究缺乏足够的样本量，详细的学生数据或质量比较组，因此研究的严谨性常常难以承受。这些限制在小学科学学习的研究中更加复杂，由于结构上的困难和学生的差异性，阻碍了此类实验的实施。由于我们的团队进行了两项半实验研究，以探索与虚拟兽医相关的学习成果，虚拟兽医是一项旨在解决与人体系统有关的基础科学概念以及随后的糖尿病和肥胖症影响的SEG，因此这项研究正解决了这一知识差距给定身体系统上的相关疾病。在研究1中，学生（SEG旨在解决与人体系统有关的基础科学概念，以及糖尿病和肥胖相关疾病对给定人体系统的后续影响。在研究1中，学生（SEG旨在解决与人体系统有关的基础科学概念，以及糖尿病和肥胖相关疾病对给定人体系统的后续影响。在研究1中，学生（n = 232）被随机分配参加虚拟兽医或参加针对相同目标的指导性探究课。我们的研究发现，处于游戏状态的学生表现优于非游戏状态。基于此发现，我们设计了研究2来比较与以下两种情况相关的学习结果：学生仅玩虚拟兽医或学生玩虚拟兽医，并且他们参加了指导性探究活动，这使该组的教学时间加倍。将学生（n = 166）分配给其中一种情况，我们发现参加这两项活动的学生的学习收益没有显着增加。这些结果表明，精心设计的SEG可以强有力地促进和支持基础环境中的科学学习。