Development of STEAM educational games focused on aesthetic and bodily expression in K-12 science class

The purpose of this study is to introduce gesture recognition-based STEAM educational games using Kinect. The game is instructional media for evoking a student’s interest and helping students understand in a STEAM education class. We suggested a STEAM education program that consisted of visualization of the science knowledge through aesthetic and bodily expression for middle school science class. In the development process of this STEAM program, the main challenge was an instruction method of scientific knowledge of human body anatomy and physiology. Gesture recognition-based game including science learning material should be an excellent educational tool to make student comprehend and understand complex science knowledge. In addition, the game is an excellent tool to visualize the contents. The gesture recognition-based educational game and the STEAM program were offered to model demonstration middle schools, entitled as ‘STEAM leaders’ schools’ in South Korea. The result of the trial lesson is this game motivated and increased students’ activities and learning. 55.8 % of the students responded that this program was satisfied and gesture-recognition based game were interesting. We believe that this educational game is suitable for STEAM education in science, dance and physical education class. Gesture recognition-based game by Kinect would be an excellent answer for the next generation’s instructional media.