Didactic game created by a UCSC Pedagogy student seeks to enchant young people with chemistry, biology and physics

The initiative brings together elements of science, with a sense of belonging to the species that inhabit the Biobío Region

It is not a mystery that the current generation is increasingly immersed in the Internet and social networks. It seems that the immediacy of each message must be really interesting to capture attention.

Based on this, Alan Leiva, a fourth-year student of Pedagogy in Secondary Education in Biology and Natural Sciences at the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción (UCSC), presented a paper at the I International Conference on Interdisciplinary Research in Education: Voices, Views and Perspectives’, COIIIED’ entitled “Gamification for learning chemistry and associated sciences in educational establishments”.

This work consists of the creation of a new game that brings together science content in a physical and digital version, framed in the execution of the DINNOVA 02/2021-1 project, awarded by professors from the Faculty of Sciences and Faculty of Engineering of the UCSC : «Design and Implementation of innovative audiovisual, digital and computer tools to be applied in the learning of Chemistry and associated Sciences, in Educational Establishments». It should be noted that in the recent Congress in which the work was presented, Alan Leiva was the only undergraduate student as a speaker.

According to the initiative’s website: “The Internal Fund for Applied Research Projects in R&D&I (DINNOVA), aims to promote applied research and innovation carried out by academics, teachers and researchers at the University, through through projects that offer solutions to the challenges of the industry or society”.

Innovation in the classrooms

In the words of Alan Leiva “this work unifies science in general, we talk about chemistry, physics and biology. Science education is dictated separately, that is the novelty that these three areas come together”.

Regarding the origin of the idea, Alan first investigated some problem in the area of ​​content teaching. The concept of gamification is the ability to use a game in the classroom, but not as an isolated event, but rather that it last throughout the entire training process.

To get to this point, the Pedagogy student interviewed first and fourth year students, to first identify if they had any previous experience linked to gamification. The analysis was carried out in about 8 educational establishments in the region.

silver body is the name of the playful proposal. “I decided to create a game that covered the problem of something ecosystemic in the Biobío and that could introduce chemistry, biology and physics. Specifically, I focused on the Andalien River, there is little information about the contaminants that are in the river, there are endemic species and it is a corridor for species that come from the beach and enter the city”, he commented regarding the topic covered. the project.

Various stages

The game is divided into several phases. First referred to the universe of the river, it means that students are introduced to the physical reality of the place. About an hour and a half is done virtually, but at the end it goes to the physical format through letters. “In the first phase, chemical elements that are in the Andalien River are shown as contaminants. There are 100 cards representing each contaminant. For example, there is nitrogen with an explanation”, he added.

The second part is based on biology, which analyzes the area of ​​taxonomy. At this point, 80 native species present in the river are covered. It is related to the concepts of food chain, species and conservation status. In the third physics stage, you take a bird, put on a helmet, enter a cannon, and do a vector exercise. Thus, the three subjects linked to secondary school sciences are complemented.

“Each stage of the game responds to a learning objective that is in the national curriculum. The three areas of science are for first half. As a whole, it is used in the third and fourth grades for a field called Science for Citizenship”, assured Alan Leiva.

Finally, the game considers an hour and a half where the students, in a close and entertaining way, can immerse themselves in the very close reality that is lived in the Biobío Region.