ICT-SPACE: Developing ICT-STEM Career Interest, Engagement and Self-Efficacy in Middle School Students through Serious Games

智慧工具（WT）与印第安纳州STEM资源网络（I-STEM）合作，将设计、开发和测试ICT-SPACE （ICT-STEM职业和职业探索），这是一个基于游戏的七年级和八年级学生的职业探索环境。ITEST战略项目的主要交付成果是一套包含6个在线小游戏的套件，学生可以通过这些小游戏“尝试”5个ICT-STEM专业，然后协作解决需要每个专业技能的顶点挑战任务。该项目的主要目标是通过提高中学生对ICT和STEM活动和职业的认识、参与、兴趣、知识和自我效能感，鼓励中学生，特别是那些来自代表性不足人口的中学生，追求STEM职业，特别是信息和通信技术（ICT）职业。ICT-SPACE将被设计成在学校、家庭和其他自由选择的环境中进行，从而为在不同时间和地点继续进行职业探索提供多种机会。为了支持这些游戏，Wisdom Tools将开发一个在线教师专业发展计划，以协助课程整合、课程计划、标准调整、技术问题和扩展学习策略。第二个项目目标是利用视频游戏的功能来设计ICT-SPACE，以吸引代表性不足的人群（女性、少数民族/种族、农村和城市经济弱势群体）进入ICT-STEM领域。这些游戏将融入以研究为基础的严肃游戏功能，以吸引未被充分代表的人群，如多样化的非玩家角色；为角色选择不同属性的能力；各种各样的任务目标；不同的奖励结构；不同的任务类型。该项目将有助于我们理解如何设计一个基于游戏的职业探索环境，吸引中学生，特别是代表性不足的群体，参与ICT-STEM活动、课程和职业，从而加强ITEST战略组合。

Wisdom Tools (WT), in partnership with the Indiana STEM Resource Network (I-STEM), will design, develop, and test ICT-SPACE (ICT-STEM Professions And Careers Exploration), a game-based career exploration environment for 7th and 8th grade students. The primary deliverable for this ITEST Strategies project is a suite of six online mini-games that will allow students to "try on" five ICT-STEM professions, and then work collaboratively to solve a capstone challenge mission requiring skills from each profession. The primary goal of this project is to encourage middle school students, particularly those from underrepresented populations, to pursue STEM careers, and specifically Information and Communication Technology (ICT) careers, by increasing their awareness, engagement, interest, knowledge of and self-efficacy related to ICT and STEM activities and careers.ICT-SPACE will be designed to be played at school, at home, and at other free-choice environments, thus providing multiple opportunities for continued career exploration at different times and locations. To support the games, Wisdom Tools will develop an online teachers' professional development program to assist with curriculum integration, lesson plans, standards alignment, technical issues, and strategies for extended learning.A second project goal is to use the affordances of video games to design ICT-SPACE in a way that will attract underrepresented populations (females, ethnic/racial minorities, rural and urban economically disadvantaged populations) to ICT-STEM fields. The games will incorporate research-based serious game features that will appeal to under-represented populations, such as diverse non-player characters; the ability to choose diverse attributes for one's avatar; a variety of mission objectives; different reward structures; and different task types. This project will strengthen the ITEST Strategies portfolio by contributing to our understanding of how to design a game-based career exploration environment to engage and interest middle school students, and underrepresented groups in particular, in ICT-STEM activities, coursework and careers.