OCIO Excellence in Student Research:Reaching out with Game Design

Katelyn DoranNASA IT Summit – 15 August 2011

Who I am

• NASA GSRP Fellow• NASA Student Ambassador• UNC Charlotte Graduate Student• Member of Games + Learning Lab• Member of Game2Learn Project

What I do• Game Development Based Outreach

– 10-week Citizen Schools curriculum– Game Maker single class sessions

• Educational Game Development– EleMental: The Recurrence– Bunny Generals Divide and Conquer

• Serious Game Development– World of Workout– Snag’Em– Greener Challenge

ONE MINUTE MADNESSA brief explanation of my work

So, let’s say you want to teach computer science to children…

Teaching with an IDE and traditional coding assignments lacks context and is confusing and unrewarding for children.

However, students respond well to video games…

How do you bridge the gap?

Outreach Affiliations

Outreach Tools

• Game Maker– Available at yoyogames.com

• CSDTs– Available at csdt.rpi.edu

• Game2Learn produced games– Available at game2learn.com

Curriculum Development• 10 weeks

– One, 90-minute session per week– Final presentation (the WOW!)

• Focus on– Computer literacy– Introductory CS material– Team work– Public speaking– Constructive criticism

Curriculum History

• Used in – Spring 2009– Fall 2009– Spring 2010– Fall 2010– Spring 2011

• ~15 students each semester

Future Work

• Formal Evaluation• Apprenticeships at two locations• Making the curriculum publicly available

Questions? Comments?Katelyn DoranUniversity of North Carolina at Charlottedoran.katelyn@gmail.com