<p>Inquiry is a key focus of Taiwan’s educational reforms, but challenges hinder its effective implementation, especially in the insect unit of elementary science education. While this unit is popular with students, it faces obstacles in observing and rearing real insects. The digital educational game <i>Anter</i>, developed through collaboration between science education experts and an ant scientist, offers a complete inquiry experience by simulating ant scientists’ practices of collecting, identifying, and rearing ants. With real-time feedback and guidance, <i>Anter</i> supports students in understanding and planning of experiments, making it a valuable tool for insect-related inquiry teaching. This study investigated the effects of integrating <i>Anter</i> into inquiry-based instruction using a quasi-experimental design with three fourth-grade classes (<i>N</i> = 72) in a Taiwanese public elementary school over four weeks. All students engaged in inquiry-based learning but with different rearing methods: two classes (<i>N</i> = 48), serving as the experimental group, used <i>Anter</i> for virtual ants rearing, while the remaining class (<i>N</i> = 24), acting as the control group, engaged in real insect rearing activities in the physical world. The findings reveal that integrating <i>Anter</i> into inquiry-based instruction significantly enhanced students’ conceptual understanding of insects, particularly benefiting low-achieving students, and improved their inquiry abilities and questioning.</p>