Down With Food is an in-development iPad game that addresses upper elementary school children’s misconceptions about what happens to food after they eat. Children typically have a simplified understanding of digestion: food enters your mouth, goes down your throat, enters your stomach, and digestion is completed in a linear fashion. We address the complexities of the digestive system through a storybook narrative integrated with a series of mini-games and simulations that are each based on attempts to apply popular game mechanics to an educational context. Though much effort has been put toward integrating game elements in educational spaces to improve learning, results have been disappointing (Wouters, Nimwegen, Oostendorp, & van der Spek, 2013). One reason for this unsuccessful hybrid is that designers have taken a “chocolate-covered broccoli” approach, in which the gaming element is a reward for completing the educational component. Our game is developed with the mindset that educational games need to be designed in a way that allows for the learning material to be delivered through the parts of the game that are most engaging (Habgood, Ainsworth, & Benford, 2005).
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