Elemental Home: A Video Game to Explore Chemistry in Everyday Life

TL;DR

Elemental Home is a video game that teaches chemistry by helping players identify chemical elements in household objects, showing it can improve learning and engagement.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel educational video game that contextualizes chemistry learning in everyday life and evaluates its effectiveness with students and teachers.

Findings

Players achieved over 70% accuracy in linking chemical elements to objects, with preservice teachers performing better than students.

Preservice teachers reached higher game levels and required fewer attempts compared to students.

The game received positive usability and satisfaction scores, indicating its potential for educational use.

Abstract

This study presents and analyzes Elemental Home, a video game designed for teaching chemistry, with a specific focus
on chemical elements in everyday life. Set inside a house, the video
game situates learning in an everyday context, challenging players
to identify chemical elements in household objects while reflecting
on their environmental impact. This paper evaluates the learning potential
and user experience of Elemental Home, based on the
participation of 18 Spanish preservice chemistry teachers and 18 ninth-grade
students. Learning in both groups was evaluated using data collected
from the video game’s database, while usability and user satisfaction
were assessed through a questionnaire. Additionally, ninth-grade students
completed a pretest and post-test to measure their understanding of
associations between chemical elements and everyday objects. Both
students and preservice teachers surpassed 70% accuracy in element–object
associations at level 1 (14/18 for students and 10/18 for preservice
teachers), although students required more attempts on average to
reach this level (4.22 compared to 2.28 attempts). While students
progressed only to level 2, preservice teachers advanced as far as
level 4. Additionally, Elemental Home delivers a
positive user experience for preservice teachers (usability: 77.35/100;
satisfaction: 75.00/100) and is regarded as moderately engaging by
students (usability: 64.44/100; satisfaction: 64.50/100). Results
emphasize the potential of video games in chemical education, demonstrating
how the combination of game-based learning, contextualization, and
interactive elements can significantly transform traditional teaching
and learning approaches in chemistry.

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