Education stakeholders from advocates to developers are increasingly recognizing the potential of science games in advancing student academic motivation for and interest in science and science careers. To maximize this potential, the project will use science games (e.g. Land Science, River City, and EcoMUVE), shown to be enjoyable to students and proven to promote student learning in science at the middle school level. Through a two-phase process, games will be used as vehicles for learning about ways to change how students think about science and potentially STEM careers. The goal of the intervention is to explore which processes and design features of science games will actually help students move beyond a temporary identity of being a scientist or engineer (as portrayed while playing the game) to one where students began to see themselves in real STEM careers. Students' participation will be guided by teams of teachers, faculty members, and graduate students from Drexel University and a local school. All science students attending the local inner city middle school in Philadelphia, PA, will participate in the intervention.
Using an exploratory mixed-method design, the first two years of the project will focus on exploring, characterizing, coding, and analyzing data sets from three large games designed to help students think about possible careers in science. During year 3, the project will integrate lessons learned from the first two years into the existing middle school science curriculum to engage students in a one-year intervention using PCaRD (Play Curricular activity Reflection Discussion). During the intervention, the PI will work with experts from Drexel University and a local school to collect data on the design features of Land Science to capture identity change in the science identity of the participating students. Throughout the course of year 3, the PI will observe, video, interview, survey, and use written tasks to uncover if the Land Science game is influencing students' identity in any way (from a temporary to a long-term perspective about being a scientist or engineer). Data collected during three specified waves during the intervention will be compared to analyses of existing logged data through collaborations with researchers at Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These comparisons will focus on similar middle-aged science students who used the same gaming environments as the students involved in this study. However, the researcher will intentionally look for characteristics related to motivation, science knowledge, and science identity change.
This project will integrate research and education to investigate learning as a process of change in student science identity within situated environmental contexts of digital science gameplay around curricular and learning activities. This integrated approach will allow the researcher to explore how gaming is inextricably linked to the student as an individual while involved in the learning of domain specific content in science. The collaboration among major university and school partners; the expertise of the researcher in educational psychology, educational technology, and science games; and the project's advisory board makes this a real-life opportunity for the researcher to use information that naturally exists in games to advance knowledge in the field about the value of gaming to changing students' science identities. It also responds to reports by the National Research Council committee on science learning and computer games, which identifies games as having the potential to catalyze new approaches to science learning.
Purpose: The United States (U.S.) has traditionally produced the world’s top research scientists and engineers, leading to breakthrough advances in science and technology. Despite the importance of STEM careers, many U.S. students are not graduating with strong STEM knowledge, skills or interests, and the percentage of students prepared for or pursuing STEM degrees or careers is declining. Research shows that the decreased interest in STEM typically begins in the middle school years, pose significant academic and social challenges for students. This project will develop a web-based game teach 6th to 8th students key scientific inquiry skills, along with the academic mindsets and learning strategies to facilitate engagement and effective science learning.
Project Activities: The researchers will create a prototype by mapping key Next Generation Science Standards and learning goals with concepts and content, and producing a game design document. Following completion of the prototype, the researchers will finalize the server architecture, create the core code systems, concept art, and develop a prototype in order to simulate the final user experience. Iterative refinements will be conducted as needed at major production milestones until the game is fully functional. Once development is complete, the research team will assess the usability and feasibility, fidelity of implementation, and the promise of the game to improve outcomes in a pilot study. In this study, 200 students in 10 classes will participate, with 5 of the classrooms randomly assigned to use the game and 5 who will proceed as normal. All students will complete pre- and post- program surveys assessing their academic mindsets, learning strategies, and science skills.
Product: This project will develop SciSkillQuest, a web-based multiplayer game intended to teach middle school students scientific inquiry skills and to foster academic growth mindsets in science. Students will pursue quests, employing inquiry skills to navigate and succeed in the game, including Questioning, Modeling, Investigating, Analyzing, Computing, Explaining, Arguing, and Informing. The game will include different paths to a solution, role playing elements, immersive narratives, challenge-based progressions, and peer collaboration to engage players. The growth mindset message — that ability and skill are developed through effort and learning — will be introduced and reinforced through feedback by embedded in-game characters. The games will be supplemental to the curriculum but will also be designed to be integrated within instructional practice. The game will be available for mobile devices as well as web browsers.
Purpose: In the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress only 17% of 8th grade students performed at or above the proficient level in U.S. history. One way to engage students in learning history is to create history learning resources that are designed to be relevant and appealing to young people's interests and regular activities. Surveys find that almost all teenage boys and girls play digital games, and the majority of teens play daily. This project will leverage the potential of games and technology to engage students and increase history skills and content knowledge.
Project Activities: The team, consisting of graphic artists, content specialists, computer scientists, and programmers, will initially create wireframes and a functional game prototype. Following feedback from a group of students and teachers on the user-interface, the team will produce an online tablet app. Iterative refinements will be conducted at major production milestones until the intervention is fully functional. Once development is complete, the researchers will assess the usability and feasibility, fidelity of implementation, and the promise of the product to improve outcomes in a pilot study. The study will include 200 8th grade students in eight classrooms. Four classrooms will be assigned to play to game as part of the curriculum over three to five class periods, and four classrooms will be taught the same historical content using the business as usual curriculum without the game. Each group will complete pre- and post- assessments to assess differences in history knowledge and skills.
Product: This project team will develop a tablet-based interactive role-playing game that immerses 5th through 9th grade students in the history of the Great Depression. The game will provide players an experiential understanding of the hardships that beset Americans in the 1930s and their strategies for survival, as individuals and as a nation. Features of the game will include story-based immersive narrative missions where student's decisions continually drive the action, tips and hints for students who are struggling in the game, writing tools, and interactive maps. The game will can be integrated within a course or used as a supplement. A teacher dashboard will be developed to facilitate the use of the game within classroom settings. Finally, the final product will include upgrades to existing games, including City of Immigrants and the The Hardest Times. The upgrades will publish these games to tablets and will include deeper in-game assessment opportunities.
Purpose: An estimated 5 to 8% of elementary school students have some form of memory or cognitive deficit that inhibits learning basic math. Researchers have identified several areas where children with math learning difficulties struggle. These include a strong sense of number facts to quickly and accurately perform operations on single digit numbers, the use of strategies to solve problems which have not yet been memorized, a sense to figure out whether or not an answer is reasonable, and self-monitoring to assess one's own efficacy and understanding. To support students with math learning difficulties in grades 1 to 4, this project team will develop a series of apps for touch-screen tablets that encourage single digit operational fluency, conceptual understanding, strategy awareness, and self-understanding.
Project Activities: During Phase I project in 2012, the research team developed a prototype of the single digit addition game, following an iterative process incorporating feedback from teachers and students having difficulty with math. Nineteen students participated in a pilot study, and the researchers found that the prototype functioned well and that users were engaged by the game. In Phase II, the team will build and refine the back end system, design and develop the teacher website, and create content for games in subtraction, multiplication, and division. Researchers will carry out a pilot test of the usability and feasibility, fidelity of implementation, and promise of the game to improve learning. Students in first to fourth grade identified by teachers as having the greatest difficulty with math will participate in the pilot study. Half of the 120 students participating in the pilot study will be randomly selected to play the game as a supplement to classroom learning whereas the other half will not have access. Students in the control group will be provided the games at the end of the study. Analyses will compare pre- and post-test math scores.
Product: The web-based game, MathFacts, will include a series of apps for touch-screen tablet computers to support math learning for 1st to 4th grade students with major or sometimes intractable learning difficulties. In the game, students will learn content through mini-lessons, engage with problems in practice and speed rounds, and then receive formative feedback on their performance. Students will use and manipulate blocks, linker tubes, number lines, and interact with engaging pedagogical agents such as parrots and sloths. Students will set goals, advance to more challenging levels, and engage in competition. The game will be self-paced and will provide individualized formative assessment scaffolding when students do not know the answer to a question. A teacher management system will support professional development and will produce reports to guide instruction. The intended outcomes from gameplay will include increased fluency, conceptual understanding, strategy awareness, self-assessment, and motivation of basic math.
Purpose: There is concern about a decline in mathematics achievement scores among U.S. students during the middle school years. For example, while 4th grade U.S. students rank 8th overall on an international mathematics comparison, by 10th grade U.S. student's drop significantly to 25th in the same comparison. Some researchers posit that much of this decline relates to how math is taught in the U.S. and with how students become less engaged as learners in middle school. The purpose of this project is to develop a web-based game to engage 7h grade students in a narrative-based story which will apply learning of content and skills aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in mathematics.
Project Activities: During Phase I in 2012, the team developed a functioning prototype and conducted usability and feasibility research with fourteen 7th grade students. Researchers found that the prototype functioned as intended and that students were highly engaged while playing the game. In Phase II, the team will develop a fully-functional user interface with animated characters, interactivity across student users, narrative scripts and accompanying art assets, 36 problem sets, and student and teacher dashboards and databases. After development is complete, a pilot study will examine the usability and feasibility, fidelity of implementation, and the promise of the game to improve math learning. The study will include 120 students in 6 classrooms in three schools, with one classroom per school randomly assigned to use the game and the other half assigned to a business-as-usual control. Analyses will compare student scores on pre and post mathematics measures.
Product: Empires is a web-based game that addresses 36 pre-algebra Common Core State Standards in mathematics for 7th and 8th grades. The game follows a storyline in a recreation of an ancient empire which is at the brink of agricultural revolution and of becoming a trade economy. As students play the game, they engage in math-focused activities to drive the action, such as taxing citizens to learn ratios and proportions, allocating resources to learn percentages, and measuring the distance and time between a neighboring empire by applying the principles of the Pythagorean Theorem. As a socially networked game, students will interact with other students in the class to complete trades that lead to encounters with different math problems. The game will include two helpful, funny, advisors who will scaffold learning through mathematical discourse, arguing over the next most important thing to do. The game design architecture will work on a wide range of computers, including desktops and iPads. A teacher's guide and companion website will provide guidance to classroom activities that complement the game.
The project team is developing a prototype of Eco, a multi-player game to prepare high school students to be environmentally literate citizens with 21st century skills. To play the game, students will enter a shared online world featuring a simulated ecosystem of plants and animals. Students will co-create the civilization by measuring, modeling, and analyzing the underlying ecosystem. Students advocate proposed plans to classmates and make decisions as a group. Cooperation and science-based decision making activities are necessary for success in preventing the destruction of their environment. The prototype will include teacher resources to support the alignment of game play to learning goals, and implementation. In the Phase I pilot research, the project team will examine whether the game prototypes function as planned, if teachers are able to integrate it within the classroom environment, and whether students are engaged with the prototype.
The project team is developing a prototype of Happy Atoms, a game to support middle school students in learning about the composition of molecules. Happy Atoms will include physical manipulative balls with embedded magnets wirelessly connected to a tablet application (app) to recognize whether or not the created molecule exists and explain why or why not. The app will also include teacher resources including instructional videos and curriculum suggestions in order to better integrate the use of the product into classrooms. In the Phase I pilot research, the project team will examine whether the hardware and software prototypes function as planned, teachers are able to integrate it within the classroom environment, and students are engaged with the prototype.
Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC), home of the NASA Glenn Visitor Center, is dedicated to sharing NASA content to inform, engage, and inspire students, educators, and the public. To further this goal, GLSC will develop a digital experience focused on collaboration and teamwork, emphasizing the benefits of a systems approach to STEM challenges. At the recently, fully renovated NASA Glenn Visitor Center, GLSC visitors will embark on an exciting mission of discovery, working in teams to collect real data from NASA objects and experiences. Mobile devices will become scientific tools as students, teachers, and families take measurements, access interviews with NASA scientists, analyze results from Glenn Research Center (GRC) test facilities, and link to NASA resources to assemble mission-critical information. This initiative will provide experiences that demonstrate how knowledge and practice can be intertwined, a concept at the core of the Next Generation Science Standards. GLSC’s digital missions will engage students and families in STEM topics through the excitement of space exploration. In addition, this project has the potential to inform the design of future networked visitor experiences in science centers, museums and other visitor attractions.
The Mansfield Public School District will create an online game curriculum program titled GameOn: Digital Citizens for students in the 5th and 6th grades. Teachers and librarians in the school district will work together to create a series of online games and quests that will meet curriculum goals while also providing an outlet for students to explore ideas and principles of digital citizenship.
This project examines the design principles by which computer-based science learning experiences for students designed for classroom use can be integrated into virtual worlds that leverage students' learning of science in an informal and collaborative online environment. GeniVille, developed and studied by the Concord Consortium, is the integration of Geniverse, a education based game that develops middle school students' understanding of genetics with Whyville, developed and studied by Numedeon, Inc., an educational virtual word in which students can engage in a wide variety of science activities and games. Genivers has been extensively researched in its implementation in the middle school science classroom. Research on Whyville has focused on how the learning environment supports the voluntary participation of students anywhere and anytime. This project seeks to develop an understanding of how these two interventions can be merged together and to explore mechanisms to create engagement and persistence through incentive structures that are interwoven with the game activities. The project examines the evidence that students in middle schools in Boston learn the genetics content that is the learning objective of GeniVille. The project uses an iterative approach to the modification of Geniverse activites and the Whyville context so that the structured learning environment is accessible to students working collaboratively within the less structured context. The modification and expansion of the genetics activities of the project by which various inheritance patterns of imaginary dragons are studied continues over the course of the first year with pilot data collected from students who voluntarily engage in the game. In the second year of the project, teachers from middle schools in Boston who volunteer to be part of the project will be introduced to the integrated learning environment and will either use the virtual learning environment to teach genetics or will agree to engage their students in their regular instruction. Student outcomes in terms of engagement, persistence and understanding of genetics are measured within the virtual learning environment. Interviews with students are built into the GeniVille environment to gauge student interest. Observations of teachers engaging in GeniVille with their students are conducted as well as interviews with participating teachers. This research and development project provides a resource that blends together students learning in a computer simulation with their working in a collaborative social networking virtual system. The integration of the software system is designed to engage students in learning about genetics in a simulation that has inherent interest to students with a learning environment that is also engaging to them. The project leverages the sorts of learning environments that make the best use of online opportunities for students, bringing rich disciplinary knowledge to educational games. Knowing more about how students collaboratively engage in learning about science in a social networking environment provides information about design principles that have a wide application in the development of new resources for the science classroom.
A two stage summative evaluation was conducted following the launch of the Mystic Seaport for Educators website, the final output resulting from the IMLS National Leadership grant entitled Mystic E-Port Digital Classroom project. The results of four focus groups, conducted in two phases, found consistent results suggesting that the project was successful at achieving all four goals as outlined in the original grant proposal. Appendix includes focus group protocol.
Informal Education at NASA Centers: Extending the Reach is a highly leveraged, modular, project-based approach to improving education opportunities for students, formal and informal educators, and life-long learners in NASA Ames Research Center’s local community and beyond. In partnership with the Aerospace Education, Research and Operations (AERO) Institute, NASA Ames has been developing two projects: Exploration Center Field Trips and Field Trip in a Box. California Teaching Fellows Foundation, as a sub awardee, has been expanding their After School University (ASU) program. The division has the goal of supporting NASA’s Education Outcome 2 with improved educational opportunities for all in the NASA Ames Visitor Center and opportunities to bring NASA content into the classroom to improve students understanding of STEM as well as improve teachers understanding and ability to teach NASA-related STEM topics. The division also has the goal of supporting NASA’s Education Outcome 3 by expanding ASU to include NASA-based STEM learning opportunities to 360 additional students in six rural schools as well as train 12 additional Teaching Fellows (Fresno State University future teachers). Through these objectives, NASA Ames has produced 10 Field Trip in a Box kits as well as new and expanded learning opportunities for all, especially 3rd – 8th grade classes, in the NASA Ames Visitor Center. ASU has reached 500 students in 10 schools and hosted 12-14 year old learners in a five-week computer-based flight simulation class, called Flying for Future Pilots.