This individual papers session, ”Science”, will include the following:
Meaningful Play: The Intersection of Videogames and Environmental Policy
Interactive multi-player simulation games have the potential to provide a more mature and statistically accurate approach to help better understand human behavior in relation to local environments and situated contexts. This could be used as a tool to better inform policy and research around environmental issues such as sustainability, food, and climate change. The [removed for blind review] at the [removed for blind review] is currently working on an ecological simulation game, Trails Forward. In this game, three players: a lumber worker, a conservationist, and a housing developer, all work and compete within an accurate model of the Vilas county landscape. Trails Forward provides a template of how play in a simulated environment can inform our understandings of human behavior given real-world privileges and restrictions.
Keari Bell-Gawne
The Radix Endeavor: Where STEM standards meet MMOs
MMOGs provide an interesting setting for inquiry-based STEM learning, given their virtual world-based environment, simulated systems, and social nature. New content standards in math and biology are putting more emphasis on learning processes such as model-based reasoning, communicating scientific ideas, and collaborative problem-solving. An educational MMO such as The Radix Endeavor can be just the right fit for incorporating many of these standards into an engaging world, if the designs are carefully thought out and tested. In this paper, the authors describe the recent changes in state standards, how the new MMOG incorporates these skills, and what evidence from initial user testing has shown about the project concept.
Susannah Gordon-Messer, Jody Clarke-Midura, Louisa Rosenheck
Supporting Social-Emotional Development in Collaborative Inquiry Games for K-3 Science Learning
While games for science learning show considerable promise, they tend not to focus on the youngest students. We are engaged in a project to create and evaluate a series of games for science learning for students in Kindergarten through grade 3. These games address a range of educational goals: to help students understand targeted science principles, develop scientific inquiry skill, and deal with situations that call for social-emotional skill. In two of our games, Beanstalk and Teeter Totter Go, players alternate between problem-solving activities and inquiry activities integrated in a single narrative context. To support social-emotional development, players must collaborate with, and sometimes seek help from, in-game characters. The main contribution of the work is a design for science games for young children that synergistically addresses scientific inquiry, social-emotional development, and science content learning. The games serve as platforms for research into how best to support this synergy.
Vincent Aleven, Steven Dow, Christel Michael, Stevens Scott, Carolyn Rosé, Mitra Fathollahpour, Amos Glenn, Julia Brynn Flynn, Erik Harpstead, Ken Koedinger
Matthew Berland, Discussant
