A Case Study on Integrating Game Programming and Biology Education Gene Expression Games Integrating Game Design and Development into Undergraduate Biology Education A Case Study on Integrating Game Programming and Biology Education

Our Approach Game Making and Game Playing to support learning Design & Develop (Phase I) Collect game stories Build: Gene Expression Games Study Effectiveness (Phase II) Encourage fun - reinforcing knowledge Assumption: students enjoy video games Assumption not always correct; many students were not very interested in playing, much less building computer games.

Design & Development: Phase I Three biology students and two computer science students volunteered Biology students: Game Story Computer science students: Java applications Project completed in one semester Met monthly Two Tetris-like games

Design & Development: Phase I Gene Transcription & Gene Translation Games Design Goals: (Biology Students) How to design a game story that fits the educational context? How to make it intriguing and easy to use? What style is appropriate to demonstrate the biology concept? How to decompose and manage the system? Story from Faculty Design goals were assigned to the team; Developers were Bio students (3) were volunteers (self-selected)

Gene Transcription Game

Gene Translation Game

Case Study: Phase II Pre- and post- game study; Three focus group sessions, mostly college juniors 74 biology (2 sessions), computer science (1) Resulted in three distinct groups: NOT- or only A LITTLE familiar with content (25) SOMEWHAT familiar with the content (28) Familiar with the content (21)

Significant Difference P-value = 0.0016 Educational Value….

Entertainment Value….

Results – Phase II Focus group data suggests: Games have better effect on those who are less familiar with the content than those who already knew them, and Students who are more familiar with the content think the games are more entertaining and less educational.

Game Design… Game Story is key Game type Working load (development and play) Teams (cross-functional) Time period (focus: one semester) Students really studied the details and asked some interesting questions.

Game Design Team Gannon University Yunkai Liu, Bioinformatics Mary Vagula, Biology Weifeng Xu, Software Engineering Steve Frezza, Software Engineering Questions Q: Other ways to measure Educational effectiveness OR Engagement value BESIDES pre- post- test? Q: What should we evaluate? Long term memory? Short? Types of comprehension? Ideas very welcome Small Games: 5-10 min games We use the Small Game model…. Q: For a series of small games – how to develop a A series of games that collectively achieve the educational/engagement goals(s) System to facilitate the integration of small games for educational use (e.g., mix-n- match, outcomes assessment, etc.) Trend: Longer or shorter? How to validate the small game approach? Tao Ding, CS Qing Guan, CS Xinger Ning BIOL Danielle Auth BIOL Ethan Sanborn BIOL