An Analysis of Gamified Mobile Applications to Educate Children about Astronomy

Teaching astronomy to children has the potential to develop their imagination and critical thinking and might encourage them to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related fields. Gamified mobile applications are tools that could be used to teach effectively astronomy concepts to children by simplifying them and making the learning experience fun and engaging. This study analyzed and assessed the specifications of 6 gamification-based applications for astronomy education, covering their content and technical features. The scoring system assigned a score with a rating from very high to very low for each of the applications. None of the applications scored a very high rating, in either the content or the technical features. The technical features have an overall lower score relative to the content. We discussed the implications of our findings in the paper and suggested recommendations for the developers of future astronomy-related applications.