Game-based science  experiments

What strategy will you use to get the most coins?

Field of Study: Psychology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Multiplayer

Ever wonder what affects trust and how the erosion of trust happens in society? In this game, you will be able to explore the concept of trust with your students in a simple version of the prisoner’s dilemma. As students interact with one another, their preferences will affect their choices, which will end up affecting their classmates preferences and choices! This is a fun way to explore and teach the concept of trust and the factors that affect it.

Do you have what it takes to impress a female Bowerbird?

Field of Study: Biology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Multiplayer

In Blue Steal, students are immersed in an augmented reality game where they take on the role of a male bird presenting females with different objects of different colours. To win, students must figure what it is the female likes and find all the objects they need. The first to find all four objects wins!

Blue Steal is designed to be played with an entire class either during class or in a practical. Students work in groups of 3-5 (there should be at least 6 groups in the class) and they compete against one another to impress their female first.

Download the AR tags here.

Our memory is imperfect, learn what influences what we remember

Field of Study: Psychology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Single Player

Delivering pizzas on a Saturday night sure isn’t what it used to be!

In Catburglary, players are tasked with delivering pizza to four of their regular customers. While doing so, the boss wants them to keep their eye open to see if the regulars are ordering a new rival’s pizza!

Before the night ends, players are questioned by police about a robbery that occurred at one of the homes.

Players answer questions to see if they can correctly recreate the scene of the robbery.

Dance into your mates heart to learn about sexual selection

Field of Study: Biology
Suitable for school years: 7 to University
Gameplay: Single Player

In Cha Cha Island, you’re a musical creature looking for a mate. Dance and sing your way into their heart while keeping time and showing off your different instruments and dance moves. In this rhythm game, players will learn about how mate preferences can shape the evolution of traits. While playing, players help collect data to demonstrate how evolution by sexual selection works.

The world’s cake has disappeared. But don’t worry, Detective Kookaburra is on the case!

Field of Study: Biology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Single Player

In this ‘choose your own adventure’, players are asked to ensure that cake makes a come-back to the menu. They will find out more about the wheat plant which is used to make wheat flour – a vital component of a good cake, and will learn how to identify some of the nastiest pathogens impacting wheat production, and why they are so successful.

Become a predator and watch evolution happen before your eyes!

Field of Study: Biology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Single Player & Multiplayer

Populations change over time, and one of the strongest forces shaping populations is predation. As predators hunt prey, they remove certain individuals, and as a consequence, the genes that encode the traits that individual possess.

In Eat Prey Live, players take on the role of a predator that hunts dots. The dots vary in speed and agility. As they play, students learn about how selection functions, and how populations change through time.

An augmented reality ice-breaker game that also helps groups learn about ecosystems

Field of Study: Biology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Multiplayer

Deciding how to randomise students in a class is not that easy! Don’t worry, EcoTag is here to help!

EcoTag is a fun way for students to break the ice and create a group if they’ve never met. Along with having fun and meeting their classmates, students also learn about ecosystems and how different organisms interact.

Download the AR tags here.

What does the future of your colony look like?

Field of Study: Biology & Psychology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Single player

The year is 2514 and you’re the commander of a new colony. It’s not as simple as you think… the survival of your colony depends on you!

Ethos 2514 is a set of ethical dilemmas that students have to work through — there is no right or wrong answer. Rather than focusing on right and wrong, this game helps teachers engage students in the nuance of ethics and philosophy. It also helps students understand what may lead others to view the world differently and make different decision.

Learn about the evolution of mimicry and classification

Field of Study: Biology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Single player

How do organisms maximize their survival? What if you’re a tasty morsel and can’t avoid detection from predators? Perhaps a solution is to look like something that predators don’t like to eat!

In Gerard Layzard, players take on the role of Gerard, a cyborg lizard (or Layzard) for hire. They must try and save the Ant Queen’s colony from invading bugs. As they play, and learn about the benefits of mimicry, they’ll be providing scientists with data to better understand which traits make a better mimic.

Save your cows, and don’t forget your hay!

Field of Study: Biology
Suitable for school years: 7 to University
Gameplay: Single Player

Aliens from outer space are trying to steal all your cows and hay!

Test your reaction time and see how good your memory is. Use your lasso and pitchfork to wrestle back your livelihood from the Aliens.

Students can use Graze Invaders to run their own experiment and collect data on the factors that affect reaction time and working memory.

Drive a camper van on the brain!

Field of Study: Psychology
Suitable for school years: 7 to University
Gameplay: Single Player

In Hippocampers players are tasked with trying to find different regions of the brain in three different stages. It’s a fun way for students to familiarise themselves with where the brain regions are located and what their function is.

Raising nestlings isn’t all it’s cracked up to be when they’re always hungry!

Field of Study: Biology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Single Player

The goal of Hungry Birds is to rear as many offspring as you can. Players take on the role of a bird hunting for food to feed its offspring and survive. As players explore the different environments in Hungry Birds, they learn about variation in food availability and must weigh different risks.

The game teaches concepts surrounding various life-history decisions ranging from allocation and feeding strategies, giving up densities, risky and shy personalities, and parent-offspring conflict.

Battle all the lizards on the island for lizard supremacy!

Field of Study: Biology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Single Player

In Inglorious Baskers, your survival is in a precarious balance! Compete with other lizards for food and basking spots – watch out for predators and be careful you don’t get sick. As you survive on lizard isle, you’ll learn about how animals need to consider different traits to make sure they can survive.

Learn about genetics while battling beasts with Ormnyr!

Field of Study: Biology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Single Player

In Ormnyr you’ll raise dragons to defeat monsters and protect your homeland, while learning about how alleles segregate. You’ll learn about dominant and recessive alleles, co-dominance, and incomplete dominance, while also learning about sex-linked traits.

By the end of Ormnyr, you’ll be an expert in understanding segregation of alleles!

Learn about cellular energy production by running along an infinite electron transport chain

Field of Study: Biology
Suitable for school years: 7 to University
Gameplay: Single player

Powerhouse of the cell places you in the factory-side of the electron transport chain and forces you to run the system. By moving through the various complexes and selecting the correct molecules at each one, you’ll be making infinite amounts of energy in no time!

Powerhouse of the cell teaches the various steps in the electron transport chain, which molecules are used at the various stages, how energy is created through the creation of a proton gradient, and most importantly, it does it in a fun and engaging way.

Perform classic psychology experiments in class in less than 5 minutes

Field of Study: Psychology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Single Player

Psych Tests allows you to run classic psychology experiments in your class in minutes!

Collect data and visualize it in front of the class in under five minutes. Along with visualizing classic experiments, Psych Tests also allows students to create their own experiments which allow them to further explore psychology theories. This is perfect for depth studies!

Can you save the Quokkas?!?

Field of Study: Biology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Single Player

Quokkas are furry cat-sized animals that come from the same family of animals as the Kangaroo! They are a great example of a unique species in need of conservation as they can now only be found in two locations in Australia: Rottnest Island and Bald Island. But in Quakkapocalypse, they are everywhere making sure our precious food webs are safe!

Become a conservation biologist and help the friendly quokkas keep the peace and make sure our ecosystems are stable. You’ll have to keep a keen eye and learn more about food webs to make sure that all the animals have what they need to survive.

Learn about conditioning by training your own augmented reality rat!

Field of Study: Psychology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Single player

Rat Zone is here to teach you all about Pavlovian and Instrumental conditioning with your own augmented reality rat.

Rat Zone helps students experience conditioning first hand – teaching students about the different types of conditioning and how each type of conditioning differs.

Test and measure reaction time!

Field of Study: Psychology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Single Player

Reaction Packed allows players to collect data on reaction time in five different tasks, which makes it simple for students to run and collect data from their own experiments.

Use augmented reality crabs to perform contest experiments!

Field of Study: Biology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Multiplayer

Reservoir Crabs takes all the difficulty out of running an animal experiment by using augmented reality fiddler crabs. With crabs that behave the “right” way each time and are immune to stress, students can focus on improving their understanding of experimental design and behavioural observations. Each crab has real measurements and behaviours which allow players to perform statistical analyses.

Download the AR crab tags here.

A letter about cancer sets your family off on a journey across the island of Sarina

Field of Study: Biology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Single player

Meet with helpful medical professionals, and discover the secrets of the island! Guide your family through this unique challenge and learn about medical roles and specialised treatments along the way.

Swipe through a spider dating app!

Field of Study: Biology
Suitable for school years: 3 to University
Gameplay: Single Player

Navigate a world of courting peacock spiders to create the ultimate spider!

In Spinder, students play the role of a breeder trying to create peacock spiders with specific traits. The peacock spiders vary in three traits: tail size, tail colour, and dance rate. As students navigate the goals for each level, they learn about how selection functions, how the value of a trait changes the relative effect of selection, why selection on multiple traits may be more difficult, and why populations vary in phenotypes.

The intuitive dating interface allows students to quickly grasp concepts and test different ideas of how selection functions.

Become a master of cytokenesis!

Field of Study: Biology
Suitable for school years: 7 to University
Gameplay: Single Player

Split-a-cell is a game where players learn about the different steps in mitosis to better understand cell division. Players are taught about the order of cell division while playing a Tetris style game where players lead cells through the stages of mitosis. While dividing cells, players are familiarized with the position of the chromosomes and how genetic information is moved within the dividing cell.

The intuitive game play and stage changes as individuals progress allows individuals to make connections between the cell stage and the position of the chromosomes.

Explore an ancient city and learn algebra

Field of Study: Maths
Suitable for school years: 7 to University
Gameplay: Single player

Totem Quest helps players learn about algebraic space.

You play as a researcher exploring ancient totems that hold the power of algebra – explore them to learn more about how algebra can be used to create vectors and understand space.

How will you share your riches with your pirate allies?

Field of Study: Biology and Psychology
Suitable for school years: 7 to University
Gameplay: Multiplayer

Treasure Tragedy is a game where players learn about the Tragedy of the Common – an ecological concept that explains how resources are used by individuals. In the game, players will play with classmates as they learn about sharing resources and selfish tendencies. Students will also learn about the evolution of cooperation and punishment within groups and societtes.

Space is infinite…but can you keep mining forever?

Field of Study: Maths
Suitable for school years: 7 to University
Gameplay: Single Player

You are Vintegral Diesel, rebel space miner out to make a buck. To do so, you’ll have to get a handle on the operating system that works on integrals!

In this game, players will learn about integrals and limits by progressing through the various levels of the game. The game progresses through different difficulty levels to build your understanding about how integrals function.