Youth’s speculative design for STEM learning

This project investigates how speculative design can support youth in exploring STEM ideas and developing STEM identities.

By iterating on a workshop that engages youth in creating games (e.g., transmedia game design based on comic books about science; future thinking through science fiction themed tabletop role-playing games), this project investigates such things as the roles of collaborative learning in interdisciplinary design teams, of narrative and game design in supporting STEM identity development, and of design processes that support scientific and systems thinking.

This project was supported by a 2018 University Research Challenge Fund (URCF) from New York University, and the SEPA-funded Biology of Human/World of Viruses project.

Topics

  • Constructionist gaming
  • The roles of narrative, collaborative design, and games in learning
  • Promoting youth’s identification and understanding of STEM
  • Design of informal learning environments 
  • Interdisciplinary design collaborations

Opportunities to participate

  • Design and facilitate youth game design workshops in and out of schools
  • Design and implement interdisciplinary STEM learning activities
  • Investigate effective ways to support learning through game design.
  • Conduct interviews and observations to understand how people learn from collaboration, design, games, and narrative

See also

Related publications

Matuk, C., Hovey, C., Hurwich, T., Sarmiento, J. P. (2018). Cognitive processes and collaborative supports for knowledge integration among youth designing games for science learning. In Linn, M. C. & Eylon, B.-S. (chairs), Osborne, J. & Laurillard, D (discussants), Kidron, A. (organizer), Knowledge Integration in the Digital Age: Trajectories, Opportunities and Future Directions. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference for the Learning Sciences (Vol. 2, pp. 1259-1266). London: International Society for the Learning Sciences.

Hovey, C., Matuk, C. & Hurwich, T. (2018). “If you add too much science it gets boring.” Exploring students’ conceptual change through their game design iterations. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference for the Learning Sciences (Vol. 3, pp. 1575-1576). London: International Society for the Learning Sciences.

Matuk, C., Levy-Cohen, R. & Pawar, S. (2016). Questions as prototypes: Facilitating children’s discovery and elaboration during game design [poster]. In Proceedings of FabLearn 2016: 6th Annual Conference on Creativity and Making in Education. (pp. 111-114). ACM Digital Library. doi: 10.1145/3003397.3003417

Levy-Cohen, R., Matuk, C. & Pawar, S. (2017). “Game making is harder than I thought”: Challenges in game design driven by children’s own interests. Poster presented at the 10th Annual Subway Summit on Cognition and Education Research, New York, NY.

Diamond, J., Jee, B., Matuk, C., McQuillan, J., Spiegel, A., & Uttal, D. (2015) Museum monsters and victorious viruses: Improving public understanding of emerging biomedical research. Curator: The Museum Journal, 58(3), 299-311. doi: 10.1111/cura.12115

Spiegel, A. N., McQuillan, J., Halpin, P., Matuk, C., & Diamond, J. (2013). Engaging Teenagers with Science Through Comics. Research in Science Education, 43(6), 2309-2326. doi:10.1007/s11165-013-9358-x