Pathways: GrACE: A Procedurally Generated Puzzle Game to Stimulate Mindful and Collaborative Informal Learning to Transform Computer Science Education

东北大学将与东北STEM教育中心和南端技术中心合作，设计、测试和研究一款程序生成的益智游戏GrACE，用于向中学生教授计算机科学。首席研究员将研究计算机生成的游戏对学生算法和计算思维技能发展的影响，以及通过游戏的性别包容、专注和协作学习环境来改变他们对计算机科学的看法。这种教学方法有潜力极大地推动基于游戏的学习设计的发展，并为性别包容的教学和学习提供见解，这可能对推进计算机科学教育领域产生广泛的影响。GrACE的开发和评估将包括两个为期一年的研究阶段，每个阶段都有自己的研究问题。第一个阶段，即设计和开发阶段，将侧重于如何设计一款性别包容的、有教育意义的益智游戏，以培养算法思维和对计算机科学的积极态度。内容生成器将使用答案集编程来创建，这是一种强大的方法，涉及到谜题设计空间的声明性规范。第二阶段将是评估研究，通过混合方法实验设计，将程序内容生成整合到教育游戏中的有效性，特别是这种游戏策略是否会刺激和提高思维，协作学习。此外，该项目将探讨开发针对中学生的多人协作教育游戏的两个核心问题：典型的面对面互动如何促进协作学习，以及学生在游戏和学习中存在哪些性别差异。该项目将覆盖波士顿地区约100名学生，长期目标是在当地用户中测试后，覆盖全球学生。该项目的结果将产生一种新的教育益智游戏，可以教授算法思维并影响对计算机科学的态度改变。通过创造一个性别包容的游戏来教授计算机科学的过程，它将为未来的教育游戏项目提供指导。除了这些单独的项目成果，它还将通过开发一种基于提供教育目标而生成游戏内容的新技术，提高我们对程序内容生成改变教育的潜力的理解。

Northeastern University will design, test, and study GrACE, a procedurally generated puzzle game for teaching computer science to middle school students, in partnership with the Northeastern Center for STEM Education and the South End Technology Center. The Principal Investigators will study the effect of computer generated games on students' development of algorithmic and computational thinking skills and their change of perception about computer science through the game's gender-inclusive, minds-on, and collaborative learning environment. The teaching method has potential to significantly advance the state of the art in both game-based learning design and yield insights for gender-inclusive teaching and learning that could have broad impact on advancing the field of computer science education.Development and evaluation of GrACE will consist of two, year-long research phases, each with its own research question. The first, design and development, phase will focus on how to design a gender-inclusive, educational puzzle game that fosters algorithmic thinking and positive attitude change towards computer science. The content generator will be created using Answer Set Programming, a powerful approach that involves the declarative specification of the design space of the puzzles. The second phase will be an evaluation that studies, by means of a mixed-methods experimental design, the effectiveness of incorporating procedural content generation into an educational game, and specifically whether such a game strategy stimulates and improves minds-on, collaborative learning. Additionally, the project will explore two core issues in developing multiplayer, collaborative educational games targeted at middle school students: what typical face-to-face interactions foster collaborative learning, and what gender differences exist in how students play and learn from the game. The project will reach approximately 100 students in the Boston area, with long-term goals of reaching students worldwide, once the game has been tested with a local audience. Results of the project will yield a new educational puzzle game that can teach algorithmic thinking and effect attitude change regarding computer science. Through the process of creating a gender-inclusive game to teach computer science, it will provide guidelines for future educational game projects. Beyond these individual project deliverables, it will improve our understanding of the potential for procedural content generation to transform education, through its development of a new technique for generating game content based on supplying educational objectives.