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

这个项目为高中生设计、开发和测试了一个数字游戏环境，在关于拯救地球生态系统的替代现实游戏中培养和衡量科学学习。玩家们使用广泛的工具共同解决科学挑战，包括一个集中的基于网络的游戏网站和社交网络工具，以及手持智能手机和基于虚拟角色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。这款游戏要求玩家为科学知识建设社区做出贡献；玩家会根据自己对社区的学习和解决挑战的决策的价值来评价彼此的贡献。设计师还与高中教师合作开发桥梁活动，将游戏中的科学知识运用到正规教育中。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，以改变和衡量高中STEM学习。关于《levelup》的研究将社交数字游戏中的科学学习与基于课堂的类似内容和技能评估进行了比较，并使用来自设计文件、参与者观察、调查、访谈和学生作业的数据来解释结果。对15个试验台班级（10-12年级）进行的形成性研究和迭代设计产生了一套评估，这些评估在科学结构方面得到了验证，并为实施研究提供了一套通用的等效课程和评估。在项目的第三年，研究人员研究了12个实验组和3个对照组，比较学生在游戏中的进步和课堂评估的收获。此外，一半的试验台班级使用课堂桥梁活动，一半不使用，每个处理产生180名学生的样本，90名学生作为控制样本。研究人员采用多层次模型考察了升级游戏和桥牌活动对高中生科学知识的影响。独立评估者（ILI）验证对形成性和实施性研究结果的解释。升级是STEM教育领域的基本第一步，以了解如何利用当今社会中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富有成效的STEM学习环境。这些技术和知识建设过程对于培养具有科学、技术和数据素养的未来劳动力至关重要，同时也体现了探究和协作技能，有助于就地球生态系统和我们这个时代其他重要的科学和社会问题做出富有成效和明智的决策。这个名为“升级”的项目为公众提供了一个持续的STEM游戏环境，也为高中STEM评估提供了一个模型，可以用于其他社交数字游戏。最后，《levelup》还提供了一种活动模式，将社交数字游戏中的科学探究与高中STEM课程中教授的技能和内容联系起来。

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.