This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will build a Scalable Game Design tool and curriculum, with the goal of increasing the participation of students in Computer Science (CS). K-12 computer education fails to attract the necessary number of students to CS - especially at the middle school level, where students make critical career decisions by judging their own aptitudes towards math and science. This is a serious problem because, despite the growing need for IT workers, enrollment in undergraduate CS programs is dropping at alarming rates. Scalable Game Design provides an ideal balance between motivational and academic concerns of CS. This approach is based on the existing Fluency with Information Technology framework recommended by the National Academies of Sciences and will be aligned with the emerging National IT education standards (ISTE NETS). This project will explore Scalable Game Design by building a low-threshold, high-ceiling design tool, called AgentCubes, featuring Incremental 3D modeling, animation, programming, and visualization. The project will incorporate the tool into a 3D Gamelet Design curriculum to provide an attractive route to the effective design, development, and deployment of an exceptionally large spectrum of games - ranging from simple 2D Frogger-like games to 3D Sims-type games.
The proposed technology has a high potential to increase the number of K-12 students interested in Computer Science (CS), which in turn should result in larger enrollments at the university level. Without stronger CS enrollments the US cannot maintain an internationally competitive IT workforce. A less programming-focused, more design-based IT curriculum is likely to increase the participation of women and minorities. Initial results from our feasibility study indicate that Incremental 3D approaches work across ethnicity and gender. The proposed 3-stage classroom integration strategy is based on a pipeline of required, elective, and transitional modules that introduce students to making simple games, move to more advanced games and computational science applications, and transition to traditional programming models. This strategy maximizes the exposure of public schools students in general, and women and minorities in particular, to computer science because all students will at least take the required one-week module. Furthermore, as a general end-user tool to create interactive 3D applications, the proposed technology will be useful beyond educational game design. Potential applications include computational science simulations, computational thinking tools and serious games with potential users such as university students, scientists, and engineers.
Federal Award ID: 0848962 Report Submission Period: 03/01/2012 to 08/31/2012 Intellectual Merits This SBIR Phase II project built a Scalable Game Design tool and curriculum, with the goal of increasing the participation of students in Computer Science (CS). K-12 computer education fails to attract the necessary number of students to CS – especially at the middle school level, where students make critical career decisions by judging their own aptitudes towards math and science. This is a serious problem because, despite the growing need for IT workers, enrollment in undergraduate CS programs is dropping at alarming rates. Scalable Game Design provides an ideal balance between motivational and academic concerns of CS. This approach is based on the existing Fluency with Information Technology framework recommended by the National Academies of Sciences and is aligned with the emerging National IT education standards (ISTE NETS). This project explored Scalable Game Design by building a low-threshold, high- ceiling design tool, called AgentCubes, that features Incremental 3D modeling, animation, programming, and visualization. The project incorporated the tool into a 3D Gamelet Design curriculum to provide an attractive route to the effective design, development, and deployment of an exceptionally large spectrum of games—ranging from simple 2D Frogger-like games to 3D Sims-type games. The intellectual merit outcomes of this research include: A first of its kind 3D creativity tool that allows end users to create 3D shapes, 3D games, 3D simulations and 3D visualizations. This tool allows 3D games and simulations to run in a browser without the need for Flash, Java or other kinds of plugins. This tool has high potential for the stimulation of spatial reasoning in its users—spatial reasoning has been found to be highly and positively related to student success throughout most STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) educational topics and domains. This innovation has been published in numerous education and programming conference proceedings and journal articles. This research resulted in patented technology that allows people with no 3D modeling background to build 3D shapes (inflatable icons). Broader Impacts This technology has high potential to increase the number of K-12 students interested in Computer Science (CS), which in turn should result in larger enrollments at the university level. Without stronger CS enrollments, the US cannot maintain an internationally competitive IT workforce. A less programming-focused, more design-based IT curriculum is likely to increase the participation of women and minorities. Initial results from the Phase I feasibility study indicated that Incremental 3D approaches work across ethnicity and gender. The AgentCubes three-stage classroom integration strategy is based on a pipeline of required, elective, and transitional modules that introduce students to making simple games, move to more advanced games and computational science applications, and transition to traditional programming models. This strategy maximizes the exposure of public schools students in general, and women and minorities in particular, to computer science because all students will at least take the required one-week module. Furthermore, as a general end-user tool to create interactive 3D applications, this technology will be useful beyond educational game design. Potential applications include computational science simulations, computational thinking tools and serious games with potential users such as university students, scientists, and engineers. The broader impact outcomes of this project include: The AgentCubes tool is extremely accessible and could bring 3D creativity to an extremely large audience. Pilot projects (which have all been completed and which produced very positive results) included: elementary students (with mostly minority students), all girl science after school programs, summer programs, middle schools, high schools (including schools serving "primarily expelled, suspended and adjudicated youth"), and undergraduate/graduate University level classes. Some of the pilots projects were covered by local news papers and have attracted funding for schools. Collaboration with Google helped to create a Facebook app which makes the Inflatable Icons tool, without the full AgentCubes programming environment, available to a potentially large audience. This tool is free, and includes the ability to not only create interesting 3D shapes but to share them with friends. This tool is being deployed with built-in positive feedback mechanisms.
