Empowering Minority Youth to Engage STEM Learning through Community Partnerships and Ed. Game Design
1. Empowering Minority Youth STEM Learning through Community Partnerships in Educational Game Design Alex Games Ph.D. Microsoft
2. NSF statistics (U.S. 2007) Job growth in STEM fields is 4 times total national workforce growth Demographic trends suggest growth in STEM trained workforce will slow down and shift toward minority populations, particularly Hispanic U.S. trails most OECD nations in secondary school completions andHispanic students graduate high school at 20 average points lower rate than white peers Hispanic representation in STEM professions is reducing in relation to their proportion of the U.S. population
3. Why teach STEM concepts through game design? For many Hispanic youth, videogames are an entry experience into computer technology Modern computer games are built upon sophisticated computer simulations of real world systems (Clark et al. 2009) Games tie the pursuit of understanding modelsto player goals (perceptions, identity, Games, 2010)
4. Good design pedagogies promote three mutually-reinforcing levels of understanding systems (Games, 2010) Real Play (CULTURE) MaterialPlay (TOOLS AND COMPONENTS) Player(s) AUDIENCES Ideal Play (MENTAL MODELS) Game(s) MESSAGES Designer(s) AUTHORS
5. Assessing STEM Learning Pre and Post Camp Words Goals Rules Assets Spaces Play Mechanics (e.g. predator-prey) Design and Concept Decisions Inquiry Audience Modeling Tool Use Artifacts Strategies Practices
6. Learning STEM through Game Design Programs within informal learning settings have a history of game design as a pedagogy
7. The Science and Art of Game Design Uses a reverse engineering computational problems “under the hood” of games TACIT => ARTICULATE KNOWLEDGE
11. Conclusion Educational Game Design is a space where youth can use THEIR OWN VALUED KNOWLEDGE to learn OTHER KNOWLEDGE, through PROBLEM SOLVING and PROBLEM POSING Design and reverse enegineering are powerful methods to contextualize abstraction Assessment as both product and process