School scene investigators: a collaborative AR game for middle school science inquiry
Denise M. Bressler · ETC Press eBooks · 2015
Did you ever think that you could engage and excite students by sending them to the Principal's office? Imagine you are a middle school student. Your iPhone pops up with an alert. Go see the Principal right now! You head down the corridors, down the stairs, and arrive at the front office to find a quick-response code (QR code) with the word PRINCIPAL next to it. You scan it. A picture of your Principal appears on the screen with the text, Hello. You click to keep reading the onscreen conversation. The Principal says: I just came into my office and found my drawer broken into. I had the answer keys in there to the test everyone is taking! You're always causing trouble and I think you did it. Confess! This is the beginning of School Scene Investigators: The Case of the Stolen Score Sheets--a forensic science mystery game played on iOS devices in a school environment. Students collect forensic evidence to prove their innocence and determine who really stole the answer sheets. As they move around the school, they encounter QR codes that they scan to access game-related information (see Figure 1). In some instances, they converse with a virtual character. At other times, scanning a code means discovering evidence to keep in their virtual inventory. Throughout the game, players are exposed to some basic elements of forensic science, like analyzing fingerprints, hair samples, and other trace evidence. They also work through other problems like interpreting a coded message on a slip of paper and determining whether characters have ulterior motives.