GAME-BASED LEARNING IN INTRODUCTORY EARTH & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LABS

Retaining geoscience majors is an important priority for the discipline, and promoting student interest in class activities may be one way to help do that. Gamification and game-based learning (GBL) have been shown to positively affect student enjoyment (Martindale & Weiss, 2020; Crisman et al., 2023), interest in geoscience careers (Gates & Kalczynski, 2016), interest in lab activities (Grissom, 2014), and learning (Martindale & Weiss, 2020; Crisman et al., 2023; Gates & Kalczynski, 2016) in college geoscience courses. A review of the gamification literature identified the following components of a game: Rules of play or a tutorial, goals & conflict, graduated learning or level system, element of chance, artificial environment or outside ordinary life, a plot or story element, and an activity with a decision making, feedback, and reward system (with the purpose of guiding players toward a goal and providing an indication that the player is closer or farther from reaching that goal; Mao et. al, 2022; Obidiah & Bein, 2019; Homer et al., 2020; Salem & Zimmerman, 2004).

The use of a full-fledged game with all of these elements in a classroom context is game-based learning (Deterding et al., 2011; Salem & Zimmerman, 2004). Gamification refers to classroom activities that use one or more, but not all, of these game elements (Deterding et al., 2011).

In this study, a rubric was developed using these game elements to evaluate the degree of gamification in introductory geoscience labs used by four institutions across the U.S. In preliminary coding of 31 labs, only 12 percent were gamified and none met all criteria necessary to be classified as games. The most common game characteristics identified were goals and conflicts and an artificial environment. The minimal use of games or gamification represents a missed opportunity to engage students in geoscience course material. Scores on the gamification rubric will be compared with previously-collected student situational interest scores to determine whether there is a relationship between gamification and situational interest.