Leveling Up: Supporting and Measuring High School STEM Knowledge Building in Social Digital Games

升级：支持和衡量社交数字游戏中高中 STEM 知识建设

• 批准号: 1119144
• 负责人: Jodi Asbell-Clarke
• 金额: $ 292.9万
• 依托单位: TERC Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-07-01 至 2017-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1119144&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Leveling; Up; Supporting; Measuring; STEM

This project designs, develops and tests a digital gaming environment for high school students that fosters and measures science learning within alternate reality games about saving Earth's ecosystems. Players work together to solve scientific challenges using a broad range of tools including a centralized web-based gaming site and social networking tools, along with handheld smart-phones, and an avatar-based massively multiplayer online environment (MMO). EdGE at TERC joins with GameGurus, high school teachers and assessment specialists to develop Leveling Up. The game requires players to contribute to a scientific knowledge building community; and players rate each other's contributions for their value to the communities' learning and decision-making in solving the challenge. Designers also work with high-school teachers to develop bridge activities that leverage science learning in games for use in formal education. Overall, the project goal is to understand the potential of the gaming environment as a direct intervention and as a catalyst to transform and measure high school STEM learning. The research on Leveling Up compares the science learning measured within social digital games to class-based assessments of similar content and skills and explains the results using data from design documents, participant observations, surveys, interviews and student work. Formative research and iterative design with a cohort of with 15 testbed classes (grades 10-12) result in a set of assessments that have been validated in terms of scientific constructs and a set of common equivalent curriculum and assessments for implementation studies. In the third year of the project, researchers study 12 treatment classes and 3 control classes to compare students' advancement in the game to their gains on classroom assessments. In addition, half of the testbed classes use the classroom bridge activities and half do not, yielding samples of 180 students for each treatment and 90 students for the control sample. Researchers use multilevel models to examine the impact of the Leveling Up game play and bridge activities on high-school students' science knowledge. Independent evaluators (ILI) validate the interpretation of findings from the formative and implementation research. Leveling Up is a fundamental first step for the STEM education field to understand how the pervasive social media emerging in today's society, including the phenomena of social digital gaming, can be leveraged to create exciting and productive STEM learning environments for the future. These technologies and knowledge building processes are critical for building a workforce of tomorrow that is scientifically, technologically, and data literate and also embody the inquiry and collaboration skills to contribute to productive and informed decisions about Earth's ecosystems and other important scientific and societal issues of our times. The project, Leveling Up, results in an ongoing STEM gaming environment for the public as well as a model for high school STEM assessment that may be used in other social digital games. Finally, Leveling Up also contributes a model for activities that bridge scientific inquiry occurring in social digital games with skills and content taught in high school STEM classes.

该项目为高中生设计、开发和测试了一个数字游戏环境，该环境在另类现实游戏中培养和衡量关于拯救地球生态系统的科学学习。玩家使用一系列工具合作解决科学挑战，包括基于网络的集中式游戏网站和社交网络工具，以及手持智能手机，以及基于化身的大型多人在线环境(MMO)。TERC的EDGE与GameGurus、高中教师和评估专家一起开发升级。游戏要求玩家为科学知识建设社区做出贡献；玩家根据彼此在解决挑战时对社区学习和决策的价值对彼此的贡献进行评级。设计师还与高中教师合作开发桥牌活动，利用游戏中的科学学习在正规教育中使用。总体而言，该项目的目标是了解游戏环境作为直接干预和催化剂的潜力，以转变和衡量高中STEM学习。这项关于升级的研究将社交数字游戏中测量的科学学习与类似内容和技能的班级评估进行了比较，并使用设计文件、参与者观察、调查、采访和学生作业的数据解释了结果。形成性研究和迭代设计由15个实验班(10-12年级)组成，形成了一套经过科学构思验证的评估，以及一套用于实施研究的通用同等课程和评估。在该项目的第三年，研究人员对12个处理班和3个对照班进行了研究，以比较学生在游戏中的进步与他们在课堂评估中的收获。此外，一半的实验班使用课堂桥接活动，另一半不使用，每个处理产生180名学生样本，90名学生作为对照样本。研究人员使用多水平模型来考察升级游戏和桥牌活动对高中生科学知识的影响。独立评估员(ILI)验证对形成和实施研究结果的解释。升级是STEM教育领域理解如何利用当今社会中出现的无处不在的社交媒体，包括社交数字游戏现象，为未来创造令人兴奋和高效的STEM学习环境的根本第一步。这些技术和知识建设过程对于建设一支在科学、技术和数据方面精通科学、技术和数据的明天的劳动力队伍至关重要，也体现了调查和协作技能，有助于就地球生态系统和我们时代的其他重要科学和社会问题做出富有成效和明智的决策。该项目名为Leving Up，为公众提供了一个持续的STEM游戏环境，并为高中STEM评估提供了一个可用于其他社交数字游戏的模型。最后，升级还提供了一种活动模式，将社交数字游戏中发生的科学探究与高中STEM课堂上教授的技能和内容联系起来。