Two Spaces, One Goal: Examining a Dyad’s Scientific Inquiry in Game-Based Learning and Beyond

Engaging students in scientific inquiry across digital and physical spaces presents both opportunities and challenges in K-12 STEM education.This study explores how a pair of learners collaboratively engage in the inquiry process through a single-player educational game.Using interaction analysis, we examine how the learners construct, refine, and revisit their hypotheses, leveraging both digital and physical tools designed to support inquiry learning.Our findings emphasize how these hybrid scaffolds facilitate collaborative discourse and hypothesis generation, while also identifying gaps in students' evidence evaluation and justification processes.This study provides empirical evidence on the potential of hybrid scaffolds to support collaborative inquiry and highlights the necessity of instructional strategies to help students develop robust criteria for evidence-based reasoning and hypothesis reflection.inquiry process from posing questions to generating solutions (Hmelo-Silver et al., 2007;Saleh et al., 2021).Game-based learning environments can support scientific inquiry by providing structured spaces for experimentation and evidence gathering, enabling students to iteratively generate, test, and refine hypotheses through self-directed exploration (Lester et al., 2014;Clark et al., 2016).While most educational games are designed for individual use, recent studies have begun to explore how pairs of students coordinate their inquiry activities when sharing these environments.Pair discourse allows students to dynamically shift roles and distribute cognitive responsibilities while actively engaging with science concepts and practices (Chi & Wylie, 2014;Roschelle, 1992).Students' engagement with educational games requires them to coordinate their investigation across digital game environments and physical interactions.This complexity intensifies when two students share a game designed for individual play.To support students navigating these spaces, scaffolds embedded across digital and physical tools can guide collaborative inquiry and discourse (Reiser & Tabak, 2014;van Dijk & Lazonder, 2016).However, little is known about how pairs of learners coordinate their investigation when sharing tools designed for individual use, particularly how they utilize mediating tools to support their collaborative work.This study examines how pairs engage in inquiry while sharing a single-player educational game, addressing two research questions:RQ1: How does a pair navigate between digital and physical spaces during scientific inquiry?RQ2: How does the pair utilize designed tools to support their collaborative inquiry process? Methods Research designThe game used in this study is a narrative-based educational game where students act as scientific investigators solving a medical mystery at a research camp.Students explore multiple interactive spaces to gather evidence, conduct experiments, and interact with characters while investigating bacterial or viral diseases.The game provides scaffolds such as reading materials and object scanners that support students in learning content knowledge, testing objects, and recording results (Rowe et al., 2011).Complementing these in-game tools, a structured workbook was designed to support pairs' collaborative investigation in the physical space.The workbook provided spaces for documenting evidence, comparing potential diseases, and making action plans through two main sections: shared evidence worksheets and investigation diaries.Both in-game and physical tools aimed to guide pairs through their inquiry process and facilitate collaborative discussion.