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Gamification of Materials Science practices through immersive methodologies and challenge-based learning

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Treballs Finals de Grau de Química, Facultat de Química, Universitat de Barcelona, Any: 2026, Tutors: Mònica Martínez López, Jordi Díaz Marcos

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Materials Science is a compulsory subject in the Chemistry degree at the University of Barcelona and is characterized by the need to relate processing, structure, and properties across different scales of observation. Although laboratory practices are designed to reinforce these concepts through experimentation, difficulties remain in achieving meaningful learning and transferring knowledge to more demanding assessment contexts. This issue is reflected in the discrepancy observed between the high scores obtained in the short questionnaires completed at the end of each practical session and the significantly more dispersed results in the final examination, where a considerable proportion of students obtain grades below the passing threshold.
To address this problem, this Final Degree Project proposes the design of a gamified teaching strategy for the laboratory practices of the Materials Science course. Following the Design Thinking methodology, an initial diagnosis was carried out through a questionnaire distributed among students to identify the main weaknesses of the current laboratory model. The results highlighted a perceived lack of participation, excessive passive listening, limited autonomy, and a strong interest in more dynamic and interactive learning experiences.
Based on these findings, a collection of educational games and activities was developed for five laboratory practices: polymeric materials, glasses and ceramics, heat treatments of steels, metallography, and mechanical properties. The proposed activities include quizzes, puzzles, memory games, role-playing exercises, problem-solving challenges, and experimental prediction tasks. All of them were designed to promote active participation, collaboration, critical thinking, and the integration of theoretical and practical knowledge while taking advantage of waiting periods commonly present during laboratory sessions.
The project constitutes a complete teaching proposal but could not be implemented or experimentally validated within the timeframe of the Final Degree Project. Consequently, no conclusions can be drawn regarding its real impact on academic performance, motivation, or learning outcomes. Nevertheless, the materials have been intentionally designed to be flexible, low-cost, and easily adaptable, allowing instructors to modify, expand, or replace activities according to their educational objectives, teaching style, and the specific needs of each student group.
Future work should focus on the implementation and evaluation of the proposal through pilot studies, enabling the collection of quantitative and qualitative evidence regarding its effectiveness. Such validation would allow the refinement of the activities and determine whether gamification can contribute to reducing the gap between students' perceived understanding during laboratory sessions and their actual performance in formal assessments

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cc-by-nc-nd (c) Molina Perpinyà, Clara, 2026

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Gamification of Materials Science practices through immersive methodologies and challenge-based learning

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Gamificació de les pràctiques de Ciència de Materials mitjançant metodologies immersives i aprenentatge basat en reptes