Educational simulations and serious games hold great potential for
creating engaging and productive learning environments in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) domains. In this paper,
we present and reflect on some of our research findings from a series of
studies on a computer simulation in the domain of electricity. These
studies used the same simulation with varying instructional designs and
over a range of grades. Interestingly, each design had a unique
influence on either student performance or student engagement, or both.
We hope our results can provide insight for designers producing
simulations (or, serious games) for education and for educators
utilizing these designs in practical settings.