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Operation ARIES!: A Serious Game for Teaching Scientific Inquiry

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Serious Games and Edutainment Applications

Abstract

Operation ARIES! is a serious game that teaches critical thinking about scientific inquiry. The player must help to identify aliens on Earth who are intentionally publishing bad research. The game combines aspects of video games and intelligent tutors in which the player holds conversations with animated agents using natural language. The player first takes a training course with a virtual trainee, followed by a module in which the player identifies flaws in research cases. In the third and final module, the player interviews suspected alien scientists on their research. Operation ARIES! is designed for high school seniors and adults.

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Acknowledgments

The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305B070349 to Northern Illinois University. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, 60115, USA

    Keith Millis

  2. University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA

    Carol Forsyth & Arthur Graesser

  3. Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, USA

    Heather Butler

  4. Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA

    Patty Wallace

  5. Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA, USA

    Diane Halpern

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  1. Keith Millis
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  2. Carol Forsyth
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  3. Heather Butler
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  4. Patty Wallace
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  5. Arthur Graesser
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  6. Diane Halpern
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Correspondence to Keith Millis .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Digital Design Studio, The Glasgow School of Art, The Hub, Glasgow, G51 1EA, United Kingdom

    Minhua Ma

  2. E514, School of Computing and Mathematics, University of Derby, Kedleston Road, Derby, DE22 1GB, United Kingdom

    Andreas Oikonomou

  3. , School of Electrical and Information, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5095, South Australia, Australia

    Lakhmi C. Jain

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Millis, K., Forsyth, C., Butler, H., Wallace, P., Graesser, A., Halpern, D. (2011). Operation ARIES!: A Serious Game for Teaching Scientific Inquiry. In: Ma, M., Oikonomou, A., Jain, L. (eds) Serious Games and Edutainment Applications. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2161-9_10

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