I arrived at the sun! Developing an educational board game with the collaboration of pre-service art and pre-service science teachers

Abstract

The aim of this study was to describe the design process of an educational board game, the Planet-Dart. This board game design is based on the science curriculum and aims to enhance middle school students' basic concepts about solar system. The purpose of developing this educational game was to provide an entertaining way for learning science. A pre-service art teacher designed the game with the support of two pre-service science teachers. The pilot study was conducted with two middle school students, and with the feedback based on the pilot study the pre-service art teacher made modifications to the game. Then, the main implementation of the game was conducted in a real-classroom environment with 60 middle school students by one pre-service science teacher and two science teachers. The qualitative results revealed that this game was an enjoyable and effective learning tool to play among middle school students. In addition, the pre- and in-service science teachers emphasized that there was an entertaining learning environment during the play. Based on these findings, the developed educational board game could enhance students' learning outcomes and entertainment.