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Education Sciences
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Designing Games to Improve STEM Education
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Designing Games to Improve STEM Education

A special issue of Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102). This special issue belongs to the section "STEM Education".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2023) | Viewed by 8362

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ashish Amresh

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Center for Human, AI and Robot Teaming, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA
Interests: game-based learning; human AI teaming; computer science education; culturally relevant pedagogy
Dr. Vipin Verma

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Assistant Research Scientist, Decision Theater Network, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA
Interests: game development; Bayesian statistics; stealth assessment; knowledge networks

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Games have been pervasive in our society and influenced design, thinking, strategy and cognitive development for many decades. Recent advancements in the study of games as a discipline have produced a wealth of information on their benefits and how to best integrate them as a learning/teaching medium. The field of game-based learning has been flourishing with ideas and strategies that researchers have developed and tested with students, and provides a good basis for designers of educational games to make the next leap forward. The evolution of the area of serious games, games designed for purposes other than entertainment, has also given rise to the widespread recognition and application of games as a teaching tool in the classroom. The need to produce more STEM professionals continues to rise, and yet the world is not able to keep up with this demand. There are multiple factors that are central to students, especially at an early age, losing interest in STEM. The central theme surrounding these factors is the lack of meaning, purpose and motivation concerning the benefits of pursuing a STEM degree or career. The challenge in front of us is to bolster the early pipeline of making STEM resonate as a viable future pathway for students and create classroom interventions that can be well-positioned to address this change. We have an excellent opportunity to achieve this goal with designing games to improve STEM education.

The scope of this Special Issue includes design strategies both at the game mechanic level as well as the curricular level that leverage the medium of games. For the purposes of this Special Issue, we broadly classify games to include video, tabletop, board, mobile, virtual reality and augmented reality games. The scope of STEM education is also kept wide to include K–12, community college and higher education STEM classrooms. This allows researchers to submit high-quality work that aims to address very specific content that games help improve (e.g., vector multiplication), or larger content such as mathematics, computer science or engineering education.

Topics of interest to this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

  • Empirical studies, position studies and observation studies on games in STEM education;
  • Design of novel game mechanics and strategies to derive learning outcomes;
  • Scalable software and development frameworks that help drive game design educational content;
  • Theoretical advancements in improving the motivation, acceptance, attitudes and integration of games in STEM classrooms;
  • Meta-analyses of current educational game design trends and their impact on STEM education;
  • Deep learning, data analysis and assessment techniques on data produced by educational games;
  • Teacher preparation, training and skill advancement in incorporating games into STEM.

Dr. Ashish Amresh
Dr. Vipin Verma
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • STEM education
  • game design
  • assessment in games
  • workforce development

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 7157 KiB  
Article
Interactive Games and Plays in Teaching Physics and Astronomy
by Zhuldyzay Akimkhanova, Kunduz Turekhanova and Grzegorz P. Karwasz
Educ. Sci. 2023, 13(4), 393; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13040393 - 13 Apr 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2540
Abstract
Physics is a difficult subject in which to trigger interest in pupils, particularly in junior high school classes: this reflects in the results of maturity exams. Therefore, teachers, educators (and authorities deciding on CV contents) should search for new efficient methods, techniques, and [...] Read more.
Physics is a difficult subject in which to trigger interest in pupils, particularly in junior high school classes: this reflects in the results of maturity exams. Therefore, teachers, educators (and authorities deciding on CV contents) should search for new efficient methods, techniques, and contents corresponding to particular topics in physics. What can be done at the level of a single university (even if big) or school is to enrich standard lessons with new elements and observe how the responses of pupils change. In this article, the results of an implementation of interactive plays and games are presented for enhancing pupils’ interest and rate of understanding in physics, astronomy, and engineering. The games were designed by authors and the contents were developed jointly at Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland and al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan. Implementation was carried out both in schools (a secondary school in Almaty and one primary school in Torun) and in extra-school (secondary school students in Almaty, elementary and secondary school students in Torun, during university-based activities) environments. A preliminary analysis of the didactical efficiency is given. We observed a positive reception of the majority of the didactical means that we proposed. These observations will serve us for further (and possibly permanent) enrichment of forms and contents of teaching physics and astronomy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Designing Games to Improve STEM Education)
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14 pages, 389 KiB  
Article
Identifying the Characteristics of Non-Digital Mathematical Games Most Valued by Educators
by James Russo, Leicha Bragg, Toby Russo and Michael Minas
Educ. Sci. 2023, 13(1), 30; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13010030 - 28 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2022
Abstract
Non-digital games are frequently used to support primary mathematics instruction. Moreover, we know from the literature that to increase the likelihood that a chosen mathematical game is educationally rich it should reflect specific principles, such as offering a balance between skill and luck [...] Read more.
Non-digital games are frequently used to support primary mathematics instruction. Moreover, we know from the literature that to increase the likelihood that a chosen mathematical game is educationally rich it should reflect specific principles, such as offering a balance between skill and luck and ensuring that a key mathematical focus is central to gameplay. However, there is limited research informing us, from a teacher’s perspective, of the specific characteristics of mathematical games that are most indicative of a game’s value for supporting learning, and the likelihood that teachers will use the game with students in the future. To help address this gap, the current study invited 122 educators to complete an on-line questionnaire, including 20 Likert-scale items designed to assess the characteristics of educationally-rich mathematical games (CERMaGs) that aligned with six ‘good practice’ principles previously identified in the literature, in relation to a specific mathematical game of their choosing. In total, educators chose a broad range of mathematical games to be evaluated (n = 53). On average, they reported that their chosen game was highly valuable for supporting mathematics learning and that they were very likely to use this game with students if given the opportunity. Our results revealed that the extent to which educators perceived a game to be suitably challenging, engaging, enjoyable, modifiable to support different learners, and transformable into an investigation or broader mathematical inquiry, were particularly important characteristics associated with perceptions of a game’s educational value. Similarly, perceived levels of student enjoyment, engagement and a game’s potential to lead to a rich mathematical investigation were important characteristics for evaluating the likelihood that an educator would use a particular game in the future with students if given the opportunity, as was the capacity of a game to support mathematical discussion. The implications of these findings for supporting classroom practice and teacher professional learning are discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Designing Games to Improve STEM Education)
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18 pages, 1128 KiB  
Article
The Impact of a Digital Escape Room Focused On HTML and Computer Networks on Vocational High School Students
by Ladislav Huraj, Roman Hrmo and Marianna Sejutová Hudáková
Educ. Sci. 2022, 12(10), 682; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12100682 - 08 Oct 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2900
Abstract
Today, students live in a world surrounded by technology and traditional education methods are no longer very attractive to them. Applying the concept of a digital educational escape room to teaching can help increase students’ interest in the subject. In an escape room, [...] Read more.
Today, students live in a world surrounded by technology and traditional education methods are no longer very attractive to them. Applying the concept of a digital educational escape room to teaching can help increase students’ interest in the subject. In an escape room, the players search for clues, complete tasks, and solve polymorphic puzzles, working together to escape the room within a certain time limit. This article presents the use of a digital escape room on third-year students in the field of computer network mechanics at a secondary vocational school. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of implementing an escape room focused on HTML and computer networks on third-year computer network mechanics students and to assess the students’ levels of perception of the game. Although the experiment did not confirm an increase in students’ cognitive abilities, the quantitative analysis confirms a significant increase in the motivation, engagement, and satisfaction of students in secondary vocational schools focusing on technical vocational subjects. Qualitative analysis provides a better understanding of these results and supports the conclusion that using a digital educational escape room is enjoyable for students, and leads to problem-solving skills and teamwork. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Designing Games to Improve STEM Education)
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