Design of a Virtual Ecological Pond for Motion-Sensing Game-Based Learning

The campus ecological pond is an effective tool to assist science teaching since it allows students to obtain knowledge of aquatic biology in freshwater environments by practical observation. In this study, a virtual campus ecological pond was developed for applications in science education in elementary schools. The system integrates real ecological situations of aquatic environments into learning activities to enhance the learning interest and motivation of students. They can observe the features of aquatic plants and aquatic animals on mobile devices and understand the relation between food chain and ecological balance in aquatic ecosystems by role playing and game missions. The virtual ecological pond can save the cost and manpower needed for building and maintaining a real ecological pond, and it can also solve the problems of insufficient species and difficulty to observe under water. Thus, it is a useful assistant tool for teaching aquatic ecology in elementary schools.