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Context 1
... quantity of exploration may not denote quality, however, which is why we also examined observations made, science variables measured, and quests encountered as additional metrics to determine engagement. Figure 5 provides two examples of exploration paths and scoring (shaded boxes represent areas of the map counted in the exploration scoring algorithm). ...
Context 2
... quantity of exploration may not denote quality, however, which is why we also examined observations made, science variables measured, and quests encountered as additional metrics to determine engagement. Figure 5 provides two examples of exploration paths and scoring (shaded boxes represent areas of the map counted in the exploration scoring algorithm). ...
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Anatomy Camp is a medical student-run program for underserved youth from communities near the university. Middle and high school students are invited to visit the medical school for an afternoon of interacting with medical students, informal learning of anatomy and wellness, and becoming inspired to consider medical and STEM professions.
Citations
... Learning also takes place informally between players during digital games. For instance, Lane et al. (2022) discussed how Minecraft players collaborated on difficult "works of engineering" to build replicas of complex structures (such as the Taj Mahal) by planning, sharing, and coordinating online. This type of collaboration, that facilitates one's learning and that of others, is also found on sites such as Twitch which is an interactive platform on which players live stream their game play (see Payne et al., 2017). ...
... Carefully-designed digital games have been shown to facilitate and improve children's academic skills in diverse content areas such as math (Pan et al., 2022), science (Lane et al., 2022), language (Chen et al., 2020), reading (Ronimus et al., 2019), and to support the development of cognitive skills associated with learning, such as executive functions (i.e., memory, attention, inhibition; Eng et al., 2023;Homer et al., 2018). In fact, learning via games may be better or equivalent to learning via non-game-based tasks and activities (Ronimus et al., 2019), and may be highly effective among learners for whom traditional approaches are unsuccessful. ...
... Games that provide players with practice that includes feedback, clear objectives, rewards for efficacious play, control over the difficulty of game play, and allow for mistakes and risks are most likely to promote durable learning (Gentile & Gentile, 2021). Other game features that enhance learning are competition and collaboration between players (Chen et al., 2020;Lane et al., 2022), variety in game dimensions (Raviv et al., 2022), the use of spoken text and conversational language, in-game advice, and opportunities for self-explanation or reflection (Mayer, 2019). ...
Digital games are an integral part of children’s lives, as 8- to 18-year-olds spend approximately 1.5 hours per day playing them (Rideout & Robb, 2019), and 76% of US children under the age of 18 are players (Entertainment Software Association [ESA], 2023). The appeal and potential benefits of digital gameplay have not been lost on educators who have increasingly incorporated games within their academic instruction even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic when digital devices were made more available for educational use (Dubé & Dubé, 2021). One challenge for studying learning in digital games is that technology continues to evolve. Thus, researchers need to consider the implications of their findings for current applications, and how those applications will inform formal and informal learning. Both types of learning may include systems that take advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance personalization, or gameplay that involves extended reality (XR), augmented (AR), or virtual reality (VR). What remains unchanged, independent of technology used, are questions addressing how best to design efficacious games for learning and how to promote durable, transferable learning from gameplay to activities beyond the game screen. Our objective here is to briefly review work done to date addressing these questions and to suggest avenues for future research given the current and pending technological climate.
... By immersing learners in these activities, WHIMC hopes to generate interest in and excitement for STEM among participating learners. Lane et al. (2022) investigated data from learners who participated in a summer camp that incorporated WHIMC and found that the learners' interest in STEM was triggered by their learning experiences in the game. ...
In this paper, we analyze how male and female learners differ in their in-game behaviors, knowledge assessment outcomes, and STEM interest using the What-If Hypothetical Implementations using Minecraft (WHIMC). We also investigate how male and female learners’ self-reported levels of frustration and boredom relate to these outcomes. We examine in-game data, out-of-game assessment data, self-reported frustration and boredom, and results of the STEM interest questionnaire (SIQ) from 175 Grade 8 learners from a school in the Philippines. We found that male learners tend to explore more than female learners. Both genders learn more through more exploration, making more observations, and completing tasks, but only female learners benefit from having more idle time. Male learners had a higher increase in STEM interest compared to female learners, while there is no significant difference in assessment scores between the genders. This study also found that boredom and frustration have a negative impact on academic outcomes, behavior, and STEM interest, especially among female learners. Bored female learners tend to do less well on post-game assessments, explore less, and make fewer observations. Frustrated female learners tend to not complete the task. Female learners who expressed frustration or boredom tend to have a decreased interest in SIQ in the Interest category after playing WHIMC.
... Minecraft is a popular open-ended sandbox game that provides players a great deal of autonomy to explore, build, and create (Baek et al., 2020). Minecraft has been used to some success in educational settings to improve creativity (Checa-Romero, 2018), increase interest in math (Bos et al., 2014), and understand how preexisting interest in STEM might influence engagement with scientific measurement tools (Lane et al., 2022). Given the possibilities to utilize Minecraft for education and research, we examine how exploration of rich, customized worlds in Minecraft is influenced by interest in STEM and contributes to conceptual understanding of Earth Science and Astronomy content. ...
MineObserver 2.0 is an AI framework that uses Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing for assessing the accuracy of learner-generated descriptions of Minecraft images that include some scientifically relevant content. The system automatically assesses the accuracy of participant observations, written in natural language, made during science learning activities that take place in Minecraft. We demonstrate our system working in real-time and describe a teacher dashboard to showcase observations, both of which advance our previous work. We present the results of a study showing that MineObserver 2.0 improves over its predecessor both in perceived accuracy of the system's generated descriptions as well as in usefulness of the system's feedback. In future work, we intend improve system generated descriptions to give more teacher control and shift the system to perform continuous learning to more rapidly respond to novel observations made by learners.
Due to the popularity and flexibility of Minecraft, educators have used this game to develop instructional materials and activities to cultivate student interests in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). One example of such an initiative is the What-If Hypothetical Implementations in Minecraft (WHIMC) project of the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. The study reported in this paper describes a WHIMC deployment in the Philippines and the effects this deployment had on student STEM interest. The study used quantitative and qualitative methods to determine the effect of WHIMC on the STEM interest of Filipino students. We performed quantitative analysis of the pre- and post-STEM Interest Questionnaire (SIQ) ratings and Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) ratings of the high- and low-performers to determine the effect of using WHIMC in the students’ STEM interest and the difference between the game experience of high- and low-performers, respectively. Qualitative analysis of the answers to the open-ended questions about the attributes of the module was also conducted to determine the relationship between the module attributes and student performance. The analysis of the aggregated SIQ ratings before and after using the WHIMC-based modules revealed only a minimal effect on the STEM interests of the students. However, there was a significant effect in the Choice Actions construct, which implies that students recognize the importance of studying hard if they want to pursue STEM-related careers. Further, the analysis of the overall GEQ of high-performers and low-performers also revealed no significant difference. Although no significant difference was observed in the overall GEQ, high-performers had significantly higher GEQ ratings in the Immersion dimension. This result suggested that high-performers had a more positive, engaging, and enjoyable learning experience. Moreover, the findings on the favorite module attributes suggested that students perform better in the out-of-game assessments when they like all the module attributes. This implies that students must be engaged in the game and learning task aside from being interested in the learning topic to have better assessment scores. The study also showed that open-ended learning environments coupled with tasks that demand exploration, observation, and higher-ordered thinking are demanding even on high-performers.
