Games and Learning

Hey kids, want to learn about science?

Some advocates for the increased emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math in schools argue that digital games will be the key to getting young people engaged about STEM subjects.

For two Hunter College CUNY science professors, Stephen DeMeo and Dennis Robbins, game developers will play a major role in giving teachers the motivational tools they need to motivate student interest in STEM.

“Growing up, we often connect with [scientists] as people first, through films, current events, TV and now, video games,” DeMeo told gamesandlearning.org.

STEM has been grabbing headlines for weeks. Two weeks ago, President Obama gave the issue a big shout out in his state of the union speech, saying we need more computer science in our schools because “the spirit of discovery is in our DNA.”

The Obama administration also hosted its fourth State of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Address, or SoSTEM, in which John Holden, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy said “science, technology and innovation are not just helpful, but essential to achieving every one of our nation’s top goals.”

But DeMeo and Robbins argue that educators can’t simply send kids to a website dedicated to George Washington Carver’s slew of peanut inventions, or, even worse, plop science textbooks down on their desks and assign homework.

Instead, DeMeo and Robbins used their presentation at last month’s CUNY Games Festival to argue that developers from game-based learning and commercial industries should create STEM characters in games that actually “do science,” even if the gameplay surrounding them is contrived and driven by fantasy-based narratives. In turn, educators can look to these characters as discussion starters for kids.

“A science textbook is like a diamond, and the rough edges have been smoothed off, all the drama has been cut out. Just fact after fact. But science is made by humans with real lives. And any developer should consider these more realistic portrayals of characters in STEM roles,” DeMeo said.

The Hunter College chemist referenced the hugely successful commercial game Fallout 3, calling it a “masterpiece” in which the main character embodies many of the human traits of a scientist performing, engineering and emoting in the real world.

“For a video game they do a pretty damn good job,” DeMeo said.

Fallout 3’s main character and his father, a scientist named Jason, live in an underground bunker called a “vault” with dozens of others people 200 years after the human race has turned the earth into “an abyss of nuclear fire and radiation.” Once the player escapes the vault they’re free to explore the irradiated landscape and explore hundreds of different gameplay scenarios.

But in order to complete the game’s main narrative, the character must help his father create a water purifier to make the world’s water drinkable again, a storyline which DeMeo, who’s a chemist and professor of science education, said incorporates some surprisingly relevant skills that can be used as a starting point for student conversations that unpack the nature of science.

When someone conjures the image of a scientist, it’s often a man wearing clear, clunky protective eyewear pearing gravely into a microscope or the mad scientist version, hunkered in a secret, underground lab, bent on unlocking the final obstacle to a nefarious invention.

“How many times do you get main characters [in games] who you see holding a baby, have inspirational verses from the Bible in his office, or take risks to find scientific breakthroughs?” DeMeo said. “Jason is a loving father who not only looks for creative solutions to a science problem, but he also has to generate consensus among his peers. He doesn’t just do it on his own. That’s how science actually works”

Demeo says the nature of science (NOS)— a pedagogical tenant that emphasizes the creative, social and malleable side of the “search to know” which sometimes gets overwhelmed by rigid scientific methodology and the gathering of facts — is usually overlooked in pop culture and watered-down in science class.

“I hook them with the gameplay, then bring them in and start show them the ‘nature of science.’ That’s a term you hear a lot, and it’s going to be a big part of science curriculum for years,” he said. “My lesson might be, ‘What is science versus what is technology? How do they impact the environment?’ Why is there this massive wasteland, and what can we do about it?”

With President Obama’s recent high-profile call-to-arms for science in his final State of the Union Address, and the passing of the “STEM Education Act of 2015,” government officials and education leaders have given computer science the national stage like few time before.

But how effective can video game characters really be in motivating kids to get excited about STEM?

“Mileage may vary,” said Vanessa Hemovich, an assistant professor of humanities and social sciences at DigiPen Institute of Technology. “Some people play games for the action or just want to get in a spaceship. But others spend hours customizing their characters in games, and the character they play really gets to the core of them.”

Much of Hemovich’s research has focused on personality theories in game design and how media, especially games, can affect social influence among consumers. She believes even independent educational developers have opportunities to add small touches to game characters that could create positively impact how young players perceive STEM.

Even tiny choices, like putting a pair of “cute-and-nerdy” glasses on a female character who’s using math to solve a problem, can resonate within the mind of a player.

“The nerdy glasses stereotype has been done. It’s not accurate. It’s hard enough to get good STEM characters without relying on stereotypes.”

But the power of a smaller studio is you can do almost anything you want. You have more flexibility to push against the stereotypes that people are used to. I’m starting to see that more in the industry. I really do hope that that trend continues.
— Vanessa Hemovich, professor, DigiPen Institute of Technology

Hunter College’s DeMeo acknowledges that teachers are sometimes limited in what role they can give to games in science class, but sometimes all you need is a place to start a conversation.

“[Games] are not as good as novels, maybe. But we need games that are about searching for an answer, the nature of science within, and can get kids to talk about how science is social and consensus driven It isn’t just about the facts and methods, it’s culture.”