South Dakota College Students Use Pokemon Go to Teach STEM to Fourth Graders

pokemon

Did you know that Pikachu, Squirtle, Eevee and Mewtwo can help teach science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) concepts to elementary school kids?

The popular Pokémon Go characters are part of a project at Dakota State University (DSU) in Madison, SD. Juniors in a technology in education class used the smartphone-based augmented reality game late last month to teach local fourth graders concepts such as photosynthesis, gravity and the transformation of electricity.

poke2

The children from St. Thomas School in Madison actually came up with the STEM ideas. They accompanied the college students to Memorial Park near campus to find the Pokémon creatures and also make STEM-related observations with the augmented reality images they captured. No modifications were made to the location-based game, developed by Niantic.

“We started with the Pokémon Go framework,” said Mark Geary, associate professor at DSU, the ed tech course’s instructor. “We’re trying to place the characters in a backdrop that had STEM significance.” 

After the children found the creatures and captured images, they returned with Geary’s students to DSU to make concrete STEM-related observations and calculations. They explored photosynthesis in the grass and leaves, the math behind building a bridge, gravity involved with the slide in the playground, and friction between a road and car tires.

The children “got very, very engaged with it very rapidly,” Geary said. “My students were not super excited themselves, but were interested in how it engaged those fourth graders — how engaged and how fast the fourth graders got involved with the product.”

Geary doesn’t know if he’ll return to the Pokémon Go project early next year, because his “spring course is online. It’s challenging to do it in the online format.”

But he definitely predicts returning to Pokémon Go next fall. 

“Augmented reality is just going to progress from here on out,” he said. “There are tons of opportunities as far as augmented reality is concerned. The game has worked, and they’re going to come up with their own variations. Every class is going to figure out something different.”  

Geary also sees potential for other instructors to use Pokémon Go in their classrooms.

“The teachers are going to invoke their own creativity in it,” he said.

About the Author

Richard Chang is associate editor of THE Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • blue AI cloud connected to circuit lines, a server stack, and a shield with a padlock icon

    Report: AI Security Controls Lag Behind Adoption of AI Cloud Services

    According to a recent report from cybersecurity firm Wiz, nearly nine out of 10 organizations are already using AI services in the cloud — but fewer than one in seven have implemented AI-specific security controls.

  • stacks of glowing digital documents with circuit patterns and data streams

    Mistral AI Intros Advanced AI-Powered OCR

    French AI startup Mistral AI has announced Mistral OCR, an advanced optical character recognition (OCR) API designed to convert printed and scanned documents into digital files with "unprecedented accuracy."

  • robot waving

    Copilot Updates Aim to Personalize AI

    Microsoft has introduced a range of updates to its Copilot platform, marking a new phase in its effort to deliver what it calls a "true AI companion" that adapts to individual users' needs, preferences and routines.

  • teenager interacts with a chatbot on a computer screen

    Character.AI Rolls Out New Parental Insights Feature Amid Safety Concerns

    Chatbot platform Character.AI has introduced a new Parental Insights feature aimed at giving parents a window into their children's activity on the platform. The feature allows users under 18 to share a weekly report of their chatbot interactions directly with a parent's e-mail address.