TY  - JOUR
AU  - Liu, Bo
AU  - Wan, Xinyue
AU  - Li, Xiaofang
AU  - Zhu, Dian
AU  - Liu, Zhao
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/2/1
TI  - An Augmented Reality Serious Game for Children’s Optical Science Education: Randomized Controlled Trial
JO  - JMIR Serious Games
SP  - e47807
VL  - 12
KW  - augmented reality
KW  - serious game
KW  - science education
KW  - childhood education
KW  - cognition
KW  - children
KW  - scientific cognition
KW  - cognitive process
KW  - effectiveness
AB  - Background: Knowledge construction in the context of children’s science education is an important part of fostering the development of early scientific literacy. Nevertheless, children sometimes struggle to comprehend scientific knowledge due to the presence of abstract notions. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of augmented reality (AR) games as a teaching tool for enhancing children’s understanding of optical science education. Methods: A total of 36 healthy Chinese children aged 6-8 years were included in this study. The children were randomly divided into an intervention group (n=18, 50%) and a control group (n=18, 50%). The intervention group received 20 minutes of AR science education using 3 game-based learning modules, whereas the control group was asked to learn the same knowledge for 20 minutes with a non-AR science learning app. Predict observe explain tests for 3 topics (animal vision, light transmission, and color-light mixing) were conducted for all participants before and after the experiment. Additionally, the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory, which measures levels of interest-enjoyment, perceived competence, effort-importance, and tension-pressure, was conducted for children after the experiment. Results: There was a statistically significant difference in light transmission (z=−2.696; P=.008), color-light mixing (z=−2.508; P=.01), and total predict observe explain test scores (z=2.458; P=.01) between the 2 groups. There were also variations between the groups in terms of levels of interest-enjoyment (z=−2.440; P=.02) and perceived competence (z=−2.170; P=.03) as measured by the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory. Conclusions: The randomized controlled trial confirmed that the AR-based science education game we designed can correct children’s misconceptions about science and enhance the effectiveness of science education. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06184022; https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT06184022 
SN  - 2291-9279
UR  - https://games.jmir.org/2024/1/e47807
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/47807
DO  - 10.2196/47807
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/47807
ER  -