Hero Elementary is a transmedia educational initiative aimed at improving the school readiness and academic achievement in science and literacy of children grades K-2. With an emphasis on Latinx communities, English Language Learners, youth with disabilities, and children from low-income households, Hero Elementary celebrates kids and encourages them to make a difference in their own backyards and beyond by actively doing science and using their Superpowers of Science. The project embeds the expectations of K–2nd NGSS and CCSS-ELA standards into a series of activities, including interactive games, educational apps, non-fiction e-books, hands-on activities, and a digital science notebook. The activities are organized into playlists for educators and students to use in afterschool programs. Each playlist centers on a meaningful conceptual theme in K-2 science learning.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Joan FreeseMomoko HayakawaBryce Becker
Science Hunters is an outreach project which employs the computer game Minecraft to engage children with scientific learning and research through school visits, events, and extracurricular clubs. We principally target children who may experience barriers to accessing Higher Education, including low socioeconomic status, being the first in their family to attend university, and disability (including Special Educational Needs). The Minecraft platform encourages teamwork and makes science learning accessible and entertaining for children, irrespective of background. We employ a flexible approach
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Laura HobbsCarly StevensJackie HartleyCalum Hartley
There is a dearth of prominent STEM role models for underrepresented populations. For example, according to a 2017 survey, only 3.1% of physicists in the United States are Black, only 2.1% are Hispanic, and only 0.5% are Native American. The project will help bridge these gaps by developing exhibits that include simulations of historical scientific experiments enacted by little-known scientists of color, virtual reality encounters that immerse participants in the scientists' discovery process, and other content that allows visitors to interact with the exhibits and explore the exhibits' themes. The project will develop transportable, interactive exhibits focusing on light: how we perceive light, sources of light from light bulbs to stars, uses of real and artificial light in human endeavors, and past and current STEM innovators whose work helps us understand, create, and harness light now. The exhibits will be developed in three stages, each exploring a characteristic of light (Color, Energy, or Time). Each theme will be explored via multiple deliveries: short documentary and animated films, virtual reality experiences, interactive "photobooths," and technology-based inquiry activities. The exhibit components will be copied at seven additional sites, which will host the exhibits for their audiences, and the project's digital assets will enable other STEM learning organizations to duplicate the exhibits. The exhibits will be designed to address common gaps in understanding, among adults as well as younger learners, about light. What light really is and does, in scientific terms, is one type of hidden story these exhibits will convey to general audiences. Two other types of science stories the exhibits will tell: how contemporary research related to light, particularly in astrophysics, is unveiling the hidden stories of our universe; and hidden stories of STEM innovators, past and present, women and men, from diverse backgrounds. These stories will provide needed role models for the adolescent learners, helping them learn complex STEM content while showing them how scientific research is conducted and the diverse community of people who can contribute to STEM innovations and discoveries.
The project deliverables will be designed to present complex physics content through coherent, immersive, and embodied learning experiences that have been demonstrated to promote engagement and deeper learning. The project will research whether participants, through interacting with these exhibits, can begin to integrate discrete ideas and make connections with complex scientific content that would be difficult without technology support. For example, students and other novices often lack the expertise necessary to make distinctions between what is needed and what is extra within scientific problems. The proposed study follows a Design-Based Research (DBR) approach characterized by iterative cycles of data collection, analysis, and reflection to inform the design of educational innovations and advance educational theory. Project research includes conceiving, building, and testing iterative phases, which will enable the project to capture the complexity of learning and engagement in informal learning settings. Research participants will complete a range of research activities, including focus group interviews, observation, and pre-post assessment of science content knowledge and dispositions.
By showcasing such role models and informing about related STEM content, this project will widen perspectives of audiences in informal learning settings, particularly adolescents from groups underrepresented in STEM fields. Research findings and methodologies will be shared widely in the informal STEM learning community, building the field's knowledge of effective ways to broaden participation in informal science learning, and thus increase broaden participation in and preparation for the STEM-based workforce.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of learning settings.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Todd BoyetteJill HammJanice AndersonCrystal Harden
Robots and robotics excite and challenge youths and adults. Unfortunately, the cost of purchasing robots or building useful robots is prohibitive for many low resource individuals and groups. This project will relieve this expense and provide an opportunity for resource limited individuals to experience the thrilling aspects of robotics by building a computer game that simulates robotic action. This project uses co-robotics wherein the participating player programs an avatar to assist in a symbiotic manner to achieve the goals of the game and participant. The game will provide access to the ideas and concepts such as programing, computational thinking and role assumption. The overarching goals are (1) to engage low-resource learners in STEM education through robotics in out-of-school spaces, and (2) to update the field of robotics-base STEM education to integrate the co-robotics paradigm.
This project is designed to gain knowledge on how co-robotics can be used in the informal education sector to facilitate the integration of computational science with STEM topics and to expand the educational use of co-robotics. Because the concept of co-robotics is new, a designed-based research approach will be used to build theoretical knowledge and knowledge of effective interventions for helping participants learn programing and computational thinking. Data will be collected from several sources including surveys, self-reports, in game surveys, pre and post-tests. These data collection efforts will address the following areas: Technology reliability, Resolution of cognitive tension around co-play, Accelerate discovery and initial engagement, Foster role-taking and interdependence with co-robots, Investigate social learning, and Validate measures using item response theory analysis. The DBR study questions are:
1.What design principles support the development of P3Gs that can effectively attract initial engagement in a free-choice OST space that offers large numbers of competing options? 2.What design principles support a P3G gameplay loop that enables learning of complex skills, computational thinking and co-robotics norms, and building of individual and career interest over the course of repeated engagement?
3.What design principles support P3Gs in attaining a high rate of re-engagement within low-resource OST settings? 4.What kinds of positive impact can P3Gs have on their proximal and distal environment? In addition, the project will research these questions about design: 1.What technical and game design features are needed to accommodate technological interruption? 2.What design elements or principles mitigate competition for cognitive resources between real-time play and understanding the co-robotic's behavior in relation to the code the player wrote for it? 3.What design elements are effective at getting learners in OST settings to notice and start playing the game? 4.What designs are effective at encouraging learners to engage with challenging content, particularly the transition from manual play to co-play? 5.What design elements help players develop a stake in the role the game offers? 6.What social behaviors emerge organically around a P3G prototype that is not designed to evoke specific social interactions?
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of learning settings.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ross Higashi
resourceprojectGames, Simulations, and Interactives
EMERGE in STEM (Education for Minorities to Effectively Raise Graduation and Employment in STEM) is a NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot. This project addresses the broadening participation challenge of increasing participation of women, the at-risk minority population, and the deaf in the STEM workforce. The project incorporates in and out-of-school career awareness activities for grades 4-12 in a high poverty community in Guilford County, North Carolina. EMERGE in STEM brings together a constellation of existing community partners from all three sectors (public, private, government) to leverage and expand mutually reinforcing STEM career awareness and workforce development activities in new ways by using a collective impact approach.
This project builds on a local network to infuse career exposure elements into the existing mutually reinforcing STEM activities and interventions in the community. A STEM education and career exposure software, Learning Blade, will be used to reach approximately 15,000 students. A shared measurement system and assessment process will contribute to the evaluation of the effectiveness of the collective impact strategies, the implementation of mutually reinforcing activities across the partnership and the extent to which project efforts attract students to consider STEM careers.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Gregory MontyMargaret KanipesMalcolm SchugSteven Jiang
Women continue to be underrepresented in computer science professions. In 2015, while 57% of professional occupations in the U.S. were held by women, only 25% of computing occupations were held by women. Furthermore, the share of computer science degrees going to women is smaller than any STEM field, even though technology careers are the most promising in terms of salaries and future growth. Research suggests that issues contributing to this lack of computer science participation begin early and involve complex social and environmental factors, including girls' perception that they do not belong in computer science classes or careers. Computer science instruction often alienates girls with irrelevant curriculum; non-collaborative pedagogies; a lack of opportunities to take risks or make mistakes; and a heavy reliance on lecture instead of hands-on, project-based learning. Computer science experiences that employ research-based gender equitable best practices, particularly role modeling, can help diminish the gender gap in participation. In response to this challenge, Twin Cities PBS (TPT), the National Girls Collaborative (NGC) and Code.org will lead Code: SciGirls! Media for Engaging Girls in Computing Pathways, a three-year project designed to engage 8-13 year-old girls in coding through transmedia programming which inspires and prepares them for future computer science studies and career paths. The project includes five new PBS SciGirls episodes featuring girls and female coding professionals using coding to solve real problems; a new interactive PBSKids.org game that allows children to develop coding skills; nationwide outreach programming, including professional development for informal educators and female coding professionals to facilitate activities for girls and families in diverse STEM learning environments; a research study that will advance understanding of how the transmedia components build girls' motivation to pursue additional coding experiences; and a third-party summative evaluation.
Code: SciGirls! will foster greater awareness of and engagement in computer science studies and career paths for girls. The PBS SciGirls episodes will feature girls and female computer science professionals using coding to solve real-world challenges. The project's transmedia component will leverage the television content into the online space in which much of 21st century learning takes place. The new interactive PBSKids.org game will use a narrative framework to help children develop coding skills. Drawing on narrative transportation theory and character identification theory, TPT will commission two exploratory knowledge-building studies to investigate: To what extent and how do the narrative formats of the Code: SciGirls! online media affect girls' interest, beliefs, and behavioral intent towards coding and code-related careers? The studies aim to advance understanding of how media builds girls' motivation to pursue computer science experiences, a skill set critical to building tomorrow's workforce. The project team will also raise educators' awareness about the importance of gender equitable computer science instruction, and empower them with best practices to welcome, prepare and retain girls in coding. The Code: SciGirls! Activity Guide will provide educators with a relevant resource for engaging aspiring computer scientists. The new media and guide will also reside on PBSLearningMedia.org, reaching 1.2 million teachers, and will be shared with thousands of educators across the SciGirls CONNECT and National Girls Collaborative networks. The new episodes are anticipated to reach 92% of U.S. TV households via PBS, and the game at PBSKids.org will introduce millions of children to coding. The summative evaluation will examine the reach and impact of the episodes, game and new activities. PIs will share research findings and project resources at national conferences and will submit to relevant publications. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.
Purpose: This project team will fully develop and test Cyberchase Fractions Quest, a web-based mathematics game for students in grade 3 and 4. Research shows that inadequate understanding of fractions can persist from early grades through higher education, and that success in fractions predicts future success in mathematics and other STEM subjects.
Project Activities: During Phase I (completed in 2016), the team developed a prototype of Cyberchase Fractions Quest, including an interactive number line game with four levels of challenges, and a tool to scaffold learning through hints and provide encouragement as students progress. At the end of Phase I, the research team conducted a pilot study over one week with 60 grade 4 students, half of whom were randomly assigned to use the prototype and half assigned to paper-based fractions activities. Results revealed that the prototype functioned as intended, that students were engaged during gameplay, and that from pre- to post-test, students using the prototype increased significantly in their knowledge of number line problems compared to the control group. In Phase II, the team will finalize the design, artwork, and animation, the formative and summative assessment component, and learning management system. After development is complete, the researchers will carry out a pilot study to assess the usability and feasibility, fidelity of implementation, and promise of the game to improve student learning of fractions over a 5-week period. The study will include four classrooms of grade 3 students, two of which will be randomly assigned, to use the games to supplement in-class lessons while the others will use paper-based activities. The researchers will compare pre-and-post scores for student learning of fractions. The study will also track teacher implementation.
Product: The final product is Cyberchase Fractions Quest—a math game based on the storyline of PBS children's television series, Cyberchase. In the game, students in grades 3 and 4 will apply learning fractions within three contexts: areas and regions (such as shapes), sets (groups of objects), and on a number line. The game will identify specific areas where students struggle and will introduce challenges to support individualized learning. Similar to other popular game apps, student will receive immediate feedback from one to three stars based on how well they perform on each challenge as well as in-game rewards as they progress toward mastery. The game will include teacher resources for classroom implementation, and an educator dashboard presenting results.
Well-designed educational games represent a promising technology for increasing students interest in and learning of STEM topics such as physics. This project will research how to optimally combine and embed dynamic assessment and adaptive learning supports within an engaging game design to build effective educational games. The project will add enhancements to a physics game called Physics Playground. The general goal of this research is to test a valid methodology that can be used in the design of next-generation learning games. The enhancement of Physics Playground will leverage the popularity of video games to capture and sustain student attention and teach physics to a much broader audience than is currently the case in traditional physics classrooms. To be most effective, this new genre of learning games needs to not only be highly engaging as a game but also to provide real-time assessment and feedback to students; support understanding of science content (i.e.,Newtonian physics); be accessible to beginners; accommodate a range of proficiencies and interests; and support equity. The research will have particular relevance to designers developing other science games and simulation by providing information about the kinds of learning supports and feedback to students are most effective in promoting engagement and learning. The project is supported by the Cyberlearning and Future Learning Technologies Program, which funds efforts that will help envision the next generation of learning technologies and advance what we know about how people learn in technology-rich environments. Cyberlearning Exploration (EXP) Projects explore the viability of new kinds of learning technologies by designing and building new kinds of learning technologies and studying their possibilities for fostering learning and challenges to using them effectively.
The project will systematically develop, test, and evaluate ways to integrate engaging, dynamic learning supports in Physics Playground to teach formal conceptual physics competencies. More generally, the project aims to advance the learning sciences, particularly in the fields of adaptivity and assessment in educational technology. Using a design-based research approach spanning three years, the research team will: (1) develop and test the effectiveness of various learning support features included in the game in Year 1; (2) develop and test an adaptive algorithm to manage the progression of difficulty in game levels in Year 2; and (3) test learning supports and adaptive sequencing in a controlled evaluation study. This research will provide evidence of the instructional effectiveness of an educational game designed using principles of instructional, game, and assessment design. It will advance understanding of the contributions of different kinds of learning supports (e.g., visualizations and explanations) and adaptivity to game-based learning and contribute to the design of next-generation learning games that successfully blur the distinction between assessment and learning. The project will generate research findings that can be incorporated into other types of STEM learning games.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Valerie ShuteRussell AlmondFengfeng Ke
This project, a collaboration of teams at Georgia Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, and the Museum of Design Atlanta and the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, will investigate how to foster engagement and broadening participation in computing by audiences in museums and other informal learning environments that can transfer to at-home and in-school engagement (and vice versa). The project seeks to address the national need to make major strides in developing computing literacy as a core 21st century STEM skill. The project will adapt and expand to new venues their current work on their EarSketch system which connects computer programming concepts to music remixing, i.e. the manipulation of musical samples, beats and effects. The initiative involves a four-year process of iteratively designing and developing a tangible programming environment based on the EarSketch learning environment. The team will develop three new applications: TuneTable, a multi-user tabletop exhibit for museums; TunePad, a smaller version for use at home and in schools; and an online connection between the earlier EarSketch program and the two new devices.
The goal is to: a) engage museum learners in collaborative, playful programming experiences that create music; b) direct museum learners to further learning and computational music experiences online with the EarSketch learning environment; c) attract EarSketch learners from local area schools to visit the museum and interact with novice TuneTable users, either as mentors in museum workshops or museum guests; and d) inform the development of a smaller scale, affordable tangible-based experience that could be used at homes or in smaller educational settings, such as classrooms and community centers. In addition to the development of new learning experiences, the project will test the hypothesis that creative, playful, and social engagement in the arts with computer programming across multiple settings (e.g. museums, homes, and classrooms) can encourage: a) deeper learner involvement in computer programming, b) social connections to other learners, c) positive attitudes towards computing, and d) the use and recognition of computational concepts for personal expression in music. The project's knowledge-building efforts include research on four major questions related to the goals and evaluation processes conducted by SageFox on the fidelity of implementation, impact, success of the exhibits, and success of bridging contexts. Methods will draw on the Active Prolonged Engagement approach (unobtrusive observation, interviews, tracking-and-timing, data summaries and team debriefs) as well as Participatory Action Research methods.
This work is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Michael HornBrian MagerkoJason Freeman