NSF Grant #1304216 “Edugaming: Student-Teacher Collaborations to Strengthen the STEM Pipeline through Educational Game Development,” awarded in 2013, focused on the creation and implementation of educational game design workshops for teachers, student and educator collaborations through college coursework to computerize teacher-developed games, and educational game development conferences.

Workshops were offered to train educators and pre-service teachers to design and develop tabletop educational game prototypes using an "Edugaming Framework,” developed by the Principal Investigators, to enhance classroom education and student engagement. This Framework eliminates quizzing from educational games, in order to have the gameplay revolve around the educational content, while drawing students into a more engaging experience. Teachers chose the subject matter of their games based on topics that their students were struggling with; when those students played the games, their understanding of the content was strengthened, with the majority of teachers reporting that their students’ grades have increased as a result of playing the games. Many teachers who participated in the Edugaming Workshops have continued creating games, ensuring that this work continues to impact students in the future. In addition, they also indicated that the approaches to interactivity and engagement that they learned through the workshops are concepts they intend to incorporate into their instructional lesson design outside of educational games. During the grant period, 177 teachers participated in the workshops, bringing educational games to thousands of students.

After the workshops, the game prototypes developed by the teachers were then computerized through a collaboration of Lehigh Carbon Community College game development majors with the teachers from the workshops. In addition to working with the teachers, students chose to work as either artists or programmers in teams to produce the projects, necessitating the development of vital skills required in their chosen careers. In the last two years of the grant, these majors also participated in the workshops, helping teachers with the initial design of their games. This provided the students an opportunity to be involved in the entire lifecycle of the games being developed. Both the computerization of the games throughout the length of the grant, as well as the participation in the last two years of the workshop strengthened their education in this discipline. The college students reported that having the teachers as clients on game development projects was a unique and valuable experience in which they gained a great deal of practical knowledge of project management and the skillsets required to work in a real-world software development setting.

In addition, annual regional Edugaming Conferences were 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. Our Edugaming Conferences have inspired the faculty at Pennsylvania State University Berks Campus to create their own Edugaming Conference, held in August 2018.

Overall, this project impacted students at three levels: the students whose education was enhanced through original educational games, the community college students whose education was improved through production experiences, and the teachers actings as students in learning innovative and impactful methods of instruction.

Last Modified: 08/08/2018
Modified by: Mary E Rasley