Applying Game Design Principles for Supporting Computational Literacy Experiences in Museum Exhibits

掌握计算机知识对日常生活和扩大劳动力能力越来越重要。研究表明，计算素养--知道什么、何时、如何以及为什么要使用计算机科学的想法，以及通过计算结构和程序的镜头看待问题和潜在解决方案的能力--可以通过玩数字游戏来支持。该项目旨在开发一个社会性和创造性的展示游戏，突出计算机科学的各个方面，特别是人工智能(AI)和计算机编程，使年轻人能够探索、构建并与彼此和其他博物馆参观者分享计算复杂系统的内容。为了玩这款游戏，成对的青年游客将使用代码卡来编程人工智能动物在虚拟森林中的行为。在这样做的过程中，年轻人将参与计算素养的实践，如基本的计算机编程，描述他们的计算想法，并与他们的朋友一起解决计算问题。他们的活动将被投射到一个大屏幕上，作为一种策略，让年轻人能够测试、排练和交流他们的计算想法，并也让其他参观者对计算问题的解决感兴趣。利用基于设计的多角度和迭代研究，大学学习科学家、博物馆从业人员和游戏开发人员将围绕科学博物馆如何更好地让在计算机科学领域传统上代表性不足的年轻人参与复杂的计算实践来研究问题。数据来源将包括互动日志数据、游客与游戏互动的观察、游客访谈和游客调查。将使用多模式和混合方法方法，在定性分析、定量分析和学习分析之间寻找趋同，以产生研究结果。计算素养的变化将通过评估访问者选择用编程解决什么问题，他们如何构建这些问题，以及他们从可能的解决方案中选择，他们编程什么，他们如何编程，以及他们如何描述编程思想来评估。该项目的成果将包括：1)支持计算能力发展的社交、互动游戏体验；2)基于游戏的展品的设计原则，促进计算能力的发展；3)不同的游戏用户，包括来自计算机科学中代表性不足的群体的用户，在设计和游戏方面的变化的新知识。预计将有1000名博物馆青年参观者直接参与这项研究。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习计划(AISL)资助，该计划旨在促进对非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括为扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验提供多种途径，推进对非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及加深参与者对更深层次学习的理解。

Becoming computationally literate is increasingly crucial to everyday life and to expanding workforce capacity. Research suggests that computational literacy--knowing what, when, how, and why to use the ideas of computer science, in combination with the capacity to view problems and potential solutions through the lens of computational structures and procedures--can be supported through digital game play. This project aims to develop a social and creative exhibit game that foregrounds aspects of computer science, specifically artificial intelligence (AI) and computer programming, in ways that enable youth to explore, construct, and share computational complex systems content with one another and other museum visitors. To play the game, pairs of youth visitors will use code cards to program the behavior of AI animals in a virtual forest. As they do so, youth will engage with computational literacy practices, such as basic computer programming, describing their computational ideas, and doing computational problem solving with their friends. Their activity will be projected on a large screen as a strategy for enabling youth to test, rehearse, and communicate their computational ideas and to also interest other visitors into computational problem solving.Using multi-perspective and iterative design-based research, university learning scientists, museum practitioners, and game developers will pursue research questions around how science museums can better engage youth who are traditionally underrepresented in computer science in complex computational practices. Data sources will include interactive-log data, observations of visitor interactions with the game, visitor interviews, and visitor surveys. A multimodal and mixed methods approach that searches for convergences between qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, and learning analytics will be used to generate research findings. Changes in computational literacy will be assessed by evaluating what problems visitors choose to solve with programming, how they frame those problems, and their selections from among possible solutions, what they program, how they program, and how they describe programming ideas. The results of this project will include: 1) a social, interactive gameplay experience that supports the development of computational literacy; 2) design principles for game-based exhibits that facilitate development of computational literacy; and 3) new knowledge of variations in design and gameplay across diverse gameplay users, including those from underrepresented groups in computer science. It is anticipated that 1,000 museum youth visitors will directly participate in the study. 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.