Where inquiry-based science learning meets gamification: a design case of Experiverse

Inquiry-based science learning is an educational strategy to enable students to actively engage in science learning concepts through inquiry activities such as experiments and observations. Gamification demonstrates a promising potential to engage children in learning contexts. In this regard, this paper presents Experiverse as an exemplar along with its associated six key design considerations to illustrate how to develop an application based on the concept of gamification and inquiry-based science learning for children. This paper reports on our experience evaluating Experiverse with 25 children (aged 9-13) in an informal setting based on data collected from log data, surveys and interviews to explore the feasibility of engaging children in science learning outside their classroom. Results indicated that children’s motivation (MO) significantly correlates with their enjoyment (PE) and perceived learning outcome (LOA) from using Experiverse. While children’s perceived learning outcome is significantly positively correlated with the number of view visits on Experiverse (EVV), the number of experiment view visits (EVV) is also significantly positively correlated with children’s perceived easiness of the app. Finally, this paper discusses the key findings of this study and points out the design implications for future research, like combining in-app experience and hands-on experimentation in real-life situations.