Desenvolvimento de um serious game como ferramenta de auxílio no aprendizado de genética

Abstract

The heredity study, also known as Genetics, is fundamental knowledge for every high school biology student. However, due to the lack of school resources - such as up-to-date material and innovative methods - many students are discouraged by the topic because of its difficulty. Games are efficient technologies to retain the user’s attention and interest. Therefore the objective of this work was to validate the feasibility of a serious game to act as an auxiliarytool in the teaching of genetics. Ten interviews were conducted with professionals in the área genetics and biological education to define the scope and functionality of the game. The game was developed based on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow theory, using the tools: Unreal Engine5, Blender 3D, Adobe Photoshop, Substance Painter and Substance Designer. He was built na action-adventure game by merging displacement obstacles with challenges about genetics. After the development, meetings were held with the participants on which they played the serious game. Then the game was evaluated through a questionnaire on Google Forms. Through the evaluation of the participants, it was found that the game worked perfectly and mechanics, presented clearly. Likewise, the contents covered by genetics were presented properly. Thegame’s proposal was understood and the direction of art was well accepted. It is concluded thatthe developed game has the potential to retain attention of students and presents itself as a possible resource to assist in genetics teaching.