Educational Games in Science Center: Experiences of Pre-Service Science Teachers

Abstract

Educational games are fun teaching tools prepared in line with the aims of the lessons and facilitate the understanding of the subjects. Due to these features, they can be used in science centers to both discover exhibits and provide understanding of concepts. In this study, it was aimed to determine the opinions about the educational games prepared for the science center. For this purpose, the games prepared for Kocaeli Science Center were played and the opinions of the pre-service teachers who played the games were determined. The study is a phenomenological research in which the opinions of the participants are investigated. The study group consists of 30 pre-service science teachers. The participants played the games prepared in relation to science lesson subjects in groups. After playing the games, their opinions on playing in the science center, the effect of playing in the science center on learning, discovering the science center and exhibits were asked based on their experiences. The data were collected through a form with open-ended questions and observations. The collected data were analyzed using the qualitative content analysis. The pre-service teachers emphasized that they understood the subjects in the exhibits better. They stated that the science center visits supported by educational games will positively affect learning. Based on the results of the research, it can be said that educational games should be among the educational tools that can be used to discover the science center and to understand the exhibits.