This Strategies project seeks to provide year round programming following an intensive summer camp for teachers and students from middle schools in a rural area. It proposes to build on the Games that Teach research at MIT, and the games research of the Digital Collaboratory at UT-Austin, to give teachers the skills they need to design educational game components in team situations with students. The approach is to use 3-D visualizations, physics engines and other gaming strategies to relate abstract math and science concepts to real world phenomenon.
(M2T2). The project’s focus was to provide two-week STEM-focused summer camps for middle school students and teachers and supporting activities during the following academic year. Computer Game Programming was a focus of the project beginning the first summer and continuing each year through Summer 2011. A no cost extension allowed project leaders to conduct two one-week summer camps in June 2012 for additional middle school students and teachers; however, the available funding did not allow for follow-up activities with these students and teachers. An emphasis on Robotics was added in the project’s second year and continued each following year with the final summer focusing on robotics only since follow up activities were not possible. Each summer from 2009 through 2012, the project conducted the camp at TAMUC for middle school students from area school districts. Teachers from the districts also participated in the summer camp and guided project activities with these students at their schools during the following school year. The project sent TAMUC students to help with these follow-up activities at the schools. Participating middle school students and teachers also returned to TAMUC during the school year following their summer experience for additional activities and to share the results of their continued learning in a game showcase and robotics challenge as appropriate. The project worked with a total of 156 middle school students and 20 teachers from eight different school districts. The student participant population was at least representative of the school districts population in terms of underrepresented groups. Participation was approximately equal by gender with the diversity of the participants increasing each year: 39% underrepresented students in 2010, 54% in 2011 and 66% in 2012. Additionally, the population was predominately potential first generation college graduates with less than 10% of parents holding 4 year degrees and approximately 100% of the students low SES. In focus groups and telephone interviews, teachers praised the project and indicated that it had a positive impact for them and their students. The teachers indicated that their students benefited from being able to make friends with students from their own districts and from the other districts. Some teachers pointed to how the project benefited "kids who were not the stars in their districts." One teacher shared that he/she believed that participation in this project will actually help to "keep some of the students in school." Teachers also shared how valuable it was for them to have the opportunity to get to know students who would be in their classes in the future. Data collected from students and teachers pointed to the project’s success in meeting its objectives by: Increasing motivation and interest of rural middle school students in robotics and gaming programming as well as increasing their motivation and interest in attending college and pursuing STEM careers Increasing students’ science, math, and technology proficiency along with their problem-solving skills Increasing teachers’ knowledge about and confidence in teaching robotics and gaming programming Providing opportunities for collaborative learning experiences for students and teachers related to robotics and gaming programming Providing students and teachers information about STEM careers, especially engineering careers.
