“What if We Explore…” Promoting Engaged Learning and Collaboration with MOUNTAIN RESCUE

Background According to the Committee on STEM Education, K-12 science students need access to learning experiences that promote collaboration and engagement. To fill that void, we need to develop activities that stimulate engaged learning and scaffold effective collaboration. K-12 teacher candidates see value in utilizing games for this purpose. Specifically, tabletop science games can help teachers engage students in science learning and scaffold collaboration. Aim For this study, we designed a collaborative, STEM-themed card game called MOUNTAIN RESCUE and explored its capacity to promote engaged learning and collaboration. Method Four groups of STEM campers (n = 14) in a suburban Mid-Atlantic region played MOUNTAIN RESCUE. All groups had a mix of boys and girls. Play-testers ranged from 10–13 years old. The tabletop game took approximately 30-minutes. During gameplay, players embodied unique STEM roles: physicist, chemist, structural engineer, and electrical engineer. They collaborated to solve challenges related to electricity, physics, chemistry, and engineering design. Discourse was audio-recorded throughout gameplay. Immediately after gameplay, self-report survey data were collected to assess flow and perceptions of collaborative learning. Results Findings demonstrated that the game promoted engagement and collaboration. Specifically, students had a flow-like experience and felt positively about the game's value for collaborative learning. Utterances demonstrating active engagement and constructive thinking became more group-focused over time. Conclusion This study contributes to science education by demonstrating potential benefits of a well-designed, low-tech, science learning environment or—in other words—a tabletop game.