#DMl2014 Wrap-up: Developing STEM Literacy Through Gameplay and Game Design

Last week I had the pleasure of coordinating and presenting at a panel at the 2014 Digital Media and Learning Conference last week. From the program:

MARCH 8 | 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM | Copley
Developing STEM Literacy Through Gameplay and Game Design
Organizer: Barry Joseph
Presenters: Rik Paganiban, Kevin Miklasz, Gary Goldberger, Scot Osterweil, Anna Ly, Eve Gaus

Both game literacy and STEM literacy have been identified as crucial 21st Century Learning Skills. Come learn how the two are supporting one another in museums, universities, and after school programs, and through commercial products. Explore examples of games made by youth and for youth. Examine the value of engaging youth in game design itself, and how game design can scaffold scientific reasoning and design skills.

Panelists will challenge each other with questions exploring the broader issue of teaching stem content and practices through games-based learning. After the provocative (and possibly endearing) discussion and debate, panelists will officially open the STEM Arcade; participants will break up into smaller groups for hands-on demos and discussion with individual panelists. Featured games will include:

• The Radix Endeavor, a multiplayer online game for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) learning in high school (MIT Education Arcade)
• Vanished, an ARG that engaged 6,000 players in serious scientific exploration in the context of a science fiction narrative in which they all played a role
• Pterosaurs, a Collectible Card Game developed by high school youth in conjunction with a new museum exhibit and Minecraft at the Museum, a Minecraft-based server designed with high school youth to teach science (AMNH)
• The Fluid Ether and The Gravity Ether, two physics simulation games with level-editors that embrace open-ended, inquiry based learning (Iridescent)
• Virtual Expeditions, a game experience for museum visitors combining both digital and analog assets such as specimens, video footage and live acting (Cal Academy)
• Elemental, a video game for children ages 7-11 that improves “number sense,” or a person’s innate ability for number estimation (The Joan Ganz Cooney Center / E-Line Media)

Partners: Barry Joseph, Associate Director for Digital Learning, American Museum of Natural History; Kevin Miklasz, Director of Digital Learning, Iridescent; Gary Goldberger, President, FableVision; Scot Osterweil, Creative Director, Learning Games Network & MIT Education Arcade; Rik Panganiban, Senior Manager of Digital Learning, California Academy of Sciences; Anna Ly, Joan Ganz Cooney Center Industry Fellow; Eve Gaus, Digital Learning Specialist, The Field Museum

The combination felt great – half conversation, half hands-on.

A member of the audience (Thanks Joyce!) filmed this one question we explored together:  Is STEM content a low-hanging fruit for learning games?

During the conversation, we hosted a back-channel for the audience to ask questions and I moderated weaving them into the conversation. Below is a word cloud form all the posts:

Unfortunately we have no recording of the audio, but below you can read the public back-channel as it unfolded (starting with the opening test posts):

View photos of the panel.