VENOMventure, an Immersive Escape-Style Game, Teaches Families the Foundations of Phylogenetics

Phylogenetics is an essential component of science literacy, but research demonstrates the challenges of interpreting evolutionary trees. While a variety of classroom interventions have been shown effective in this field, the potential of educational games is underexplored. We investigate the efficacy of an escape-style game for teaching tree-thinking skills. VENOMventure immerses English- and Spanish-speaking families with kids ages 8 years and up in a biomedical mystery during a 30-45-min game. Participants (N = 466) at two natural history museums, one urban library, and one rural library played VENOMventure and took part in research that assessed learning through pre-test, post-test, and 4-week follow-up test. Players of all ages, from rural and urban settings, demonstrated significant learning gains, which persisted for at least 4 weeks. Groups with child-led or balanced puzzle-solving styles showed larger overall learning gains than groups with adult-led play. Furthermore, the experience was perceived as fun and memorable, and led to extended interactions with the science concepts from the game. This research provides insight into the variety of interventions that support phylogenetics learning and represents a rare case in which an escape-style game purported to be educational has generated robust evidence supporting that claim.