The Effect of Simulation Games and Worksheets on Learning of Varying Ability Groups in a High School Biology Classroom.

High school biology students who were taught by the simulation game method had comparable achievement gains to the students who were taught using worksheets. The three simulation games used in this study were able to teach factual information as well as the worksheet activities. This effect was constant across ability and sex. There were no significant differences in the retention scores of high ability students utilizing gaming. Also, there was no significant difference in the scores of low ability students utilizing worksheets and low ability students using games. Students' sex was significantly related with retention in the three-way interaction of treatment by ability by sex. Low ability females using simulation games scored higher on retention than low ability females utilizing worksheets. Low ability males utilizing worksheets scored higher on retention than low ability males using simulation games.