Herbularyo is an educational card game designed to teach the therapeutic benefits of commonly used Philippine medicinal herbs and their active molecular compounds. This study investigated the effectiveness of Herbularyo in strengthening students’ conceptual recall of molecular compounds and their therapeutic effects compared to those who watched an animated video with the same coverage to ensure equivalent exposure. It also evaluated the usability of its game design using a convergent parallel mixed methods research design. Participants included grade 8 students, third year chemistry students, and fourth year health sciences students, who were randomly assigned to either the Herbularyo or the control group. The results showed that high school students who played Herbularyo demonstrated significantly higher gains in test scores than the control group, whereas undergraduate students in both groups showed similar improvements. Survey responses and focus group discussions revealed high ratings for the game’s mechanics and structure, pedagogical challenge, required preliminary knowledge, and player feedback. Students found Herbularyo enjoyable, engaging, and effective in reinforcing organic chemistry concepts while promoting appreciation for the cultural significance of medicinal herbs. These findings suggest that culturally contextualized educational games, such as Herbularyo, can serve as valuable supplements to traditional organic chemistry instruction, particularly for younger learners.
Magsino et al. (Tue,) studied this question.