(EAGER) Transforming STEM For Women and Girls: Reworking Stereotypes & Bias

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Intellectual Merit: Dartmouth College proposes an exploratory project meant to offer testable proof of concept activities that enact some practical approaches to create an environment of encouragement for girls in STEM through games. The activities will take into account the context of families, schools, communities, and peer groups. The researchers hypothesize that well-designed game activities may disrupt negative stereotypes about women's capabilities in STEM fields. Through fostering and supporting girls' confidence in their abilities in STEM, they may be more motivated to become interested in STEM fields. Using the theoretical frameworks of Critical Play, where the design process mirrors the values to be integrated into the design of the artifact, and informed by Design-Based Research, the project team will address the research questions by iterating and testing novel approaches to these issues. The proposed project explores, prototypes, iterates, and assesses interactive experiences designed to connect research findings in gender and STEM areas to girls in their own contexts. The research team proposes to prototype 10 games with the goal to finalize 4 for production. No one has yet used a game platform to explore mitigating bias and stereotypes, and this is a new approach to challenging social norms that have been shown to decrease girls' interest in STEM. Broader Impact: A recently released AAUW report points to recent research findings that identify the social and environmental factors in the underrepresentation of women in STEM areas. Much research has pointed to the specific ways in which girls might further succeed in STEM areas if particular social and cultural aspects were to improve. Small game activities are a powerful vehicle for a much broader discussion, social interaction, and collaboration, and offer a ripe platform for STEM exploration. Discovering a set of design principles that foster change with the social and environmental factors involved in the perception of STEM fields promises an extraordinary proof-of concept contribution to the field. The successful completion of this research has great potential to show proof of concept in the disruption of gender stereotypes using games. Some of these barriers might be changed through well-designed, collaborative game activities that can engage and energize the issues.