Teaching Science Using Digital Literacy and 3D Gaming

This in-progress research project seeks to develop models for educational games that will address, but will not be limited to, the issues of: 1) formulating design strategies that maintain the motivational elements of creativity, exploration, problem solving and being fun to play while at the same time satisfying curriculum objectives; 2) integrating science literacy and computational thinking; 3) integrating gaming into the classroom learning experience focusing on questions of how, where and when to use games; 4) providing methodologies for connecting and applying the STEM skills learned from the gaming experiences to specific engineering problems; and 5) leveraging industry collaboration. The effectiveness of these models will be demonstrated through the creation and application of a 3D 3rd-person exploratory learning game.