An augmented reality-based science book for junior high school students: Case study on environmental pollution and global warming topics

Abstract

The digitalization in the 21st century has brought tremendous benefits in many aspects of human lives, including in education. It opens the door of observing the phenomena that are difficult to do in classrooms. As phenomena observation is a vital activity in learning science, the technology of augmented reality (AR) will help students digitally observe as many phenomena as possible during their learning process. In this study, a science book that is integrated with AR technology was developed. It aims to fill the gap in the literature of what components should be included in an AR-based science book, especially the learning resource that is suitable for STEAM education. The study was limited to environmental pollution and global warming topics. The results showed that the developed AR-based science book has met the eligibility criteria to be used in STEAM education. In terms of numerical viewpoint, the scores for the feasibility test were 96.09% and 97.65% respectively for the learning media and material validation. Therefore, the AR-based science book is considered as a valid learning resource from the expert assessment. In addition, teachers and students also showed positive perspectives towards the AR-integrated book.