This study sought to investigate the role and power of child pay during the teaching and learning of abstract STEM subject content. The general perception is that STEM subjects are difficult for teachers to teach and for students to learn. Due to such stereotyping and perceptions, STEM subjects have been generally regarded as suitable for the presumed talented few students. Such stereotyping of STEM subjects has resulted in scaring away potential students and teachers from accessing these disciplines. Teacher practices and content representation and presentations that distance the content for teaching from the students’ social life and concrete reality have consolidated the perception that STEM subjects are hard for students to learn and comprehend and difficult for teachers to teach.

Two main questions guided this inquiry:
1. What are the students’ learning experiences when the art of play is used during teaching and learning of STEM subject content?
2. How can educators humanise the content for STEM subjects for enhanced student engagement and learning?

The study was a quasi-controlled use of play in the teaching of the topic of osmosis to 60 Grade 11 students. The control and the experimental groups each comprised 30 students each at a rural high school in South Africa. The topic of osmosis was taught to the experimental group involving game play in a sports field. The control group was taught the same topic through the traditional approach of textbook, talk, chalk, and board use in a typical classroom situation. The forms of collected data in this inquiry included students’ test scripts, group and in-depth interview transcripts from both the students’ groups and their teacher. The Opportunities, Recognition, Interaction, Models-Arts framework was the theoretical lens that informed the art of play teaching methodology used to teach, the data collection, analysis and conclusions drawing in this inquiry. Thematic analysis was followed to analyse the collected data for emerging themes from a deductive to an inductive approach.

It emerged that when using game-based learning, the playful being in each student is awakened. Awakening the playful being raises deep rooted concentration and consciousness that is crucial for improved memory and enhanced playful learning. Through the art of play, the students had opportunities to learn abstract osmosis concepts through social constructivism of knowledge in a social group set up as evidenced by the higher test scores of the experimental group when compared to the control group. Representing and presenting the content for teaching through the art of play distanced it from being perceived as the textbook content that is difficult to teach and for the students to comprehend. Thus, it is recommended that educators adopt an approach of teaching STEM subjects as STEAM as this has unlimited potential to enhance epistemological access and success by students. This also takes off the burden of challenging attempts to explain abstract concepts to students as they learn through doing in a joyful social context.

Keywords: STEM subjects, game play, STEAM, osmosis, constructivism.