Safe science classrooms: Teacher training through serious educational games

STIMULATE (Science Training Immersive Modules for University Learning Around Teacher Education) is a Serious Educational Game (SEG) designed to advance science teacher preparation and development, by creating a laboratory safety module that immerse teachers in scenarios previously taught using only hypothetical case studies. This study employed a two-phase design based methodology. The first phase was a cognitive task analysis of a convenience sample (n = 10) of preservice and in-service science teachers in which they described their key issues and concerns regarding chemical laboratory safety planning, response, management plan, and assessment. Phase 2 examined the usability and effectiveness of STIMULATE's initial build on 31 preservice teachers. The t-test for equality of means demonstrates that there is a statistically significant difference between pretest and post-test scores, t(30) = 14.79, p<.001, d = 2.56 (large) Overall, results suggest positive learning gains from the preservice science teachers who engaged in STIMULATE program. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.