By Taylor Paraboschi

In an age where technology is thriving and normal teaching methods are proving to be ineffective, two University employees, engineering Professor David Burghardt and codirector of the University’s Center for Technological Literacy Michael Hacker have recently received a $1.8 million dollar National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, the first installment of a grant for $3.2 million dollars, for a computer game geared towards helping middle school students learn math and science.

“We’ve been realizing for some time that students who grew up in the Internet generation are demanding educational experiences that involve interactive, motivational online learning activities,” said Hacker, who is the principle investigator on this project. Hacker stressed the fact that in an age where students rely heavily on technology for everything that they do, traditional teaching methods need to be improved in order to retain students attention and keep up with the ever growing popularity of technology.

Their current project, a game geared towards presenting math and science to middle school students in a fun and interactive way, seems to accomplish this goal. “Student engagement is maximized when students are so caught up in game play that they don’t realize how much they are learning,” said Burghardt.

According to a University press release, the computer game, which is called The Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE) project will simulate a real life scenario where students will have to portray people in Alaska recently involved in an earthquake. In order to survive the harsh conditions students will have to combined their math and science skills to create a shelter that will provide them with enough warmth.

Both Hacker and Burghardt stress the fact that learning is far more meaningful when students can draw knowledge from real-world situations to which they are personally invested, more so than if it was just a random fact in a textbook.

“Many studies have shown that design activities are a fruitful context for students to develop important skills and understandings. Researchers and psychologists have demonstrated that designing, building, and interacting with models is an effective vehicle for teaching and learning subject matter content,” said Burghardt. By successfully completing this game students will learn about subject matters such as thermal conductivity, heat flow retention and the dimensions of a shelter.

The project, which has been in progress for the past seven years, will be tested in 12 different schools, in nine different states across the country. “To do a national field test, we need a broad representation of schools and students. The 12 schools are those with diverse student populations (including children with disabilities) in rural, remote, suburban, and urban areas,” said Burghardt.

When asked what makes learning so much easier through a commuter game, Burghardt replied that “students are increasingly attracted to interactive learning through 3D simulations and gaming and there is a growing body of research on the effectiveness of online games as learning tools.”

Once The Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE) project is completed it will be free of cost to all middle schools who want to participate.