BrainBuilder: A Virtual Reality Serious Game for Insect Neuroanatomy Education

This paper introduces BrainBuilder, a Virtual Reality (VR) serious game designed to support learning about insect neuroanatomy as part of an undergraduate neurobiology curriculum. Leveraging a cognition-oriented design, we used the revised Bloom’s taxonomy to translate complex learning objectives into specific cognitive instructions, subsequently implemented through various engaging game mechanics. The learning scenarios include a shooting game for brain structure identification, a whacka-mole game for naming brain parts, a throwing game for understanding brain regions, and a puzzle game for assembling brain components. The development of BrainBuilder follows a user-centered approach, incorporating formative evaluations to refine gameplay and instructional content.