Making Biology come alive through augmented reality

Abstract

An antagonistic relationship seems to exist between outdoor learning and technology. It is normally the case that an instructional approach to learning in the outdoor environment is adopted usually characterised by a teacher guiding his/her students through a fieldwork session. This research develops the concept of using technology in science education, particularly Augmented Reality (AR) in biology fieldworks. The study revolves around the views of Year 9 biology students and biology teachers on the use of ICT, particularly the use of augmented reality in biology fieldwork. Being the most frequented and popular site for fieldwork sessions in biology, Buskett was chosen as the site of this study. An application based on augmented reality together with a student’s workbook were designed and used with four schools from the State sector and one school from the independent sector. A total of 148 students and eight teachers participated voluntarily. Data was generated from students’ questionnaires, interviews conducted with the eight teachers and eight fieldwork sessions which were audio-recorded but six out of eight fieldwork sessions were observed. Data analysed show that the augmented reality application designed had an overall positive impact on students and teachers despite students’ and teachers’ lack of experience on using ICT resources during a biology lesson and fieldwork. It allowed interactive and self-sufficient learning as well as increased collaborative performance with other students while also increasing students’ determination to learn more without the teacher’s assistance. Although an overall positive impact on the use of augmented reality in biology fieldwork was shown, more attempts and effort are needed to increase the use of ICT in biology to have more effective results in digital literacy and inquiry-based learning.