This document describes a serious game called Operation ARIES that teaches scientific inquiry skills through an interactive story. The game covers important concepts in psychology, sociology, biology, and chemistry. Players help the Federal Bureau of Science investigate flawed alien research by reading interactive texts, evaluating case studies, and interrogating research examples. It aims to help high school, college students, and adults learn to critically evaluate research claims. The game implements eLearning principles and dialogue to provide feedback and assess knowledge gained over its estimated 7-15 hours of gameplay.

1. Teaching Scientific Inquiry with a Serious Game Carol Forsyth, University of Memphis Keith Millis, Northern Illinois University Art Graesser, University of Memphis Diane Halpern, Claremont McKenna College

2. The Problem…

3. People need to learn how to critically evaluate descriptions of research. . . Causal statement Th Correlational Design

4. . . . and claims made by advertisers and the media

5. A solution…

7. Developing Research Ideas

8. The Independent and Dependent Variables

9. Experimental Control

10. The Sample & Experimenter

11. Drawing conclusion

12. (21 concepts altogether)Teaches Scientific Inquiry Skills

13. An epic story … Aliens are publishing flawed research. . . and the Federal Bureau of Science (FBS) want you to help them find out why. . .

14. The story is told through Animated agents Emails, texts, news updates Videos

16. Provides requisite knowledge for later modules

18. Evaluate flawed “published” research

19. Learn to identify flaws

21. Research cases are abbreviated (e.g., abstracts, headlines, ads)

22. Learn to ask relevant questions about research

24. Internal Assessments Multiple choice tests Tutorial dialogs Case evaluations

25. 3 Types of “trialogs” – matching prior knowledge with dialog moves Vicarious: when player shows low knowledge Tutors Human player

26. 3 Types of “trialogs” – matching prior knowledge with dialog moves Standard: when player shows intermediate knowledge Tutors Human player

27. 3 Types of “trialogs” – matching prior knowledge with dialog moves Teaching: when player shows high knowledge Tutors Human player

28. Example Teaching Trialog Glass (fellow student): Let’s just go over the importance of these things one more time. Why do we need to have operational definitions? (question) Laura (human student): so that they can be reliably measured and used by other researchers Glass: OK. (neutral feedback) Dr. Quinn: (FBS Teacher): Um, can you add to that? (pump) Laura: it is important to create operational definitions because they provide a basis for measuring variables and so that they can be reliably measured and used by other researchers in other studies. Glass: That is not clear to me. I thought operational definitions had something to do with telling others about your study. What could that be? (Hint) Laura: how to measure a variable. Glass: I still don't understand. Wow, it seems like operational definitions have something to do with being able to reliably do something. What is that something? (prompt) Laura: measure a variable Dr. Quinn: Okay. Reliably recognize variables (neutral feedback, prompt completion) Glass: I'm remembering something about how operational definitions make it so that a variable means the same thing to all researchers. That means that when other researchers use the same variable, it is what? (prompt) Laura: reliable Dr. Quinn: Great! It is reliable (positive feedback, prompt completion) Glass: Yeah, I understand. Operational definitions are important to consider because they allow a particular variable to be reliably recognized, measured, and understood by all researchers. (summary)

29. eLearning principles implemented in Operation ARIES! Active learning Immediate feedback Dialog interactivity Multimedia effects Distributed practice Transfer

30. Knowledge gained by students from each college

32. All interested adults

33. Takes 7-15 hours to complete

34. “Lite” version is planned

36. For more information: cmfrsyth@memphis.edu