Edugaming: Student-Teacher Collaborations to Strengthen the STEM Pipeline through Educational Game Development

这个项目建立在先前的ATE项目的基础上，该项目创建了四个计算机游戏和模拟开发的副学士学位课程，重点是游戏编程和数字艺术。在这个新项目中，STEM教育和劳动力管道在几个方面得到了加强。正在举办讲习班，培训教育工作者和职前教师使用“教育游戏”框架设计和开发桌面教育游戏原型，以加强STEM课堂教育和学生参与。研讨会结束后，这些原型通过社区大学计算机游戏与模拟开发专业的学生与研讨会的老师合作进行计算机化。这种合作为学生提供了独特的实习体验，在其中磨练了他们的沟通、团队合作和项目管理技能。最后的电脑游戏是由K-12的学生玩的，以加强他们的课堂学习。游戏的玩家沉浸在STEM的概念中，鼓励对主题的进一步探索，并促进对STEM职业生涯的兴趣。通过师生合作的社区大学生实地体验和开发教育游戏的结构化框架是通过项目网站、ATE中心、出版物和会议传播的模式，以接触到更广泛的受众。此外，每年举行地区会议，聚集游戏行业代表、STEM教育工作者和学生进行对话，以开发额外的教育游戏课程和学习经验，以增加进入STEM领域的学生数量。该项目的评估计划正在评估：该项目如何影响社区大学生和中学生的职业选择和他们对STEM的兴趣；开发的原型棋盘游戏和相关的计算机游戏的教学效果；社区大学生的毕业路径，跟踪有多少人继续攻读学士学位课程(以及是否在STEM)，有多少人直接进入劳动力大军(以及这些工作是否与STEM相关)；以及区域会议在所有参与者中的有效性。

This project builds on a previous ATE project which created four associate degree programs in Computer Game and Simulation Development with foci on game programming and digital arts. In this new project, the STEM education and workforce pipeline is strengthened in several ways. Workshops are being offered to train educators and pre-service teachers to design and develop tabletop educational game prototypes using an "Edugaming" framework to enhance STEM classroom education and student engagement. After the workshops these prototypes are then computerized through a collaboration of community college students in the Computer Game and Simulation Development major with the teachers from the workshops. This collaboration provides unique internship experiences for the students in which they hone their communication, teamwork, and project management skills. The final computerized games are played by K-12 students to strengthen their classroom learning. The players of the games are immersed in STEM concepts, encouraging further exploration of the topics and promoting interest in STEM careers. The community college student field experience through the student-teacher collaborations and the structured framework for developing educational games are models that are being disseminated through the project website, ATE centers, publications, and conferences to reach broader audiences. In addition, annual regional conferences are being held to bring together game industry representatives, STEM educators, and students to engage in conversations leading to the development of additional educational game curricula and learning experiences that increase the number of students entering STEM fields.The project's evaluation plan is assessing: how the project influences the community college and secondary students' career choices and their interest in STEM; the instructional effectiveness of the prototype board games and the associated computerized games that are developed; the path of community college students who graduate, tracking how many continue on to a bachelor degree program (and whether in STEM) and how many go directly into the workforce (and whether the jobs are STEM-related); and on the effectiveness of the regional conferences across all participants.