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GoldenCasinoNews
Deep Dive
4 ways schools use video game design to spark interest in computer science
Districts can hook students with existing enthusiasm, helping them
build technical and soft skills while also broadening STEM diversity.
Lauren Barack
Dec. 9, 2020
In the Lewisville Independent School District in Texas, video game
design and programming courses typically get 200 students a year to
sign up — but only about 150 can enroll. That interest, and the
subsequent waiting list, is a sign of how eager students are for these
courses that Technology Exploration and Career Center East Director
Adrian Moreno, along with teachers Billy Carter and Kevin O’Gorman,
shepherd in the district.
While most of these students may never have designed or coded a video
game before, nearly all have held a controller or navigated a game, as
90% of children ages 13 to 17 play video games on a computer, game
console or cellphone, according to the Pew Research Center.
That fact isn’t lost on the teachers at Lewisville ISD.
“In the 1960s, everyone wanted to be a filmmaker. In the 1970s, they
wanted to study broadcasting, and video gaming is the current hot one,”
O’Gorman told Education Dive. “Today, all the kids have grown up with
the internet, wireless devices and streaming video. Here, they get
their finger on how to create that world and want to make [games] or
mess around with them."
For districts looking to build more science, technology, engineering
and mathematics (STEM) connections into curriculum, game design and
programming can serve as an immediate gateway by tapping into students'
interests, strengthening their connections to what they're learning,
and even build additional skills to help them in school as well as
their professional life.
Students build foundational technical skills
In Lewisville ISD, students who get a spot in one of the classes work
on top-of-the-line Macs and Alienware PCs — computers that professional
game developers use. Classes also mirror, in some ways, how
professional game companies work, too. For example, the students are
expected to place some of their finished games into the hands of
reviewers to get feedback on what works, and what doesn’t.
In Lewisville, reviewers come in a pint-sized form — the district's kindergarteners.
Students are tasked every year with designing an edutainment game,
delivering a lesson in an entertaining way. They can choose the subject
and the lesson they want to deliver, but when the kindergarteners get
their hands on the games, they’re not just playing for fun, they’re
giving feedback, said Carter. That way they can tell the high school
students whether the games are too hard or too easy — and if they’ve
actually learned something.
“After the kindergarteners leave, we sit and discuss their feedback,”
said Carter. “As for the kindergarteners, the principals says the
students look forward to it every year.”
Seeding STEM skills into elementary grades
While Lewisville ISD hands the role of video game reviewers over to its
kindergarteners, the classes are for high school students. But video
game design and programming can be taught to very young students, as
well — a push staffers at New York Hall of Science are making, looking
at how to engage elementary school students in building, creating and
writing video games.
The science museum, based in Queens, New York, holds summer classes,
trains teachers and runs student workshops at schools. Typically,
they’ve worked with middle and high school students, but are now
“trying to engage younger audiences in these concepts,” said Anthony
Negron, NYSCI’s manager of digital programming. The organization
shifted to online during the pandemic, doing fewer programs.
Classes for younger students start with Scratch, a simple drag-and-drop
programming language developed at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Media Lab. The first project with Scratch is to typically
build a maze challenge, said Negron, which not only helps them learn
the programming language, but gives them a project or goal rather than
a set of rote lessons to complete. That proves to be more engaging,
with a wide variety of projects produced in the end.
“We’ve seen kids use Scratch to build out the narrative of a story
they’re reading,” he said. “And we’ve seen them use Scratch to build
out games to address a community issue."
Soft skills aren't omitted
While the teachers in Lewisville are aware not every student will go on
to be a video game designer or programmer, they believe the skills they
learn can help them succeed in any work environment. These include soft
skills like knowing how to write a strong resume or build a
presentation, abilities employers state they want to see in young job
candidates.
“We have business partners, and we’ve asked them if we are teaching
students the right curriculum,” said Carter. “And one of the things
they talked about was how important these soft skills were.”
Sharon Lambert, a teacher at Florida's Dunnellon High School, also
helps her game design and programming students develop soft skills.
After piloting the courses several years back with free resources from
the web, Lambert has seen Marion County Public Schools expand the
program to where students can now take multiple courses and learn
programming languages including Python, Unity and C-Sharp, in addition
to other digital tools including Blender.
“I’m making sure that kids know there’s a lot more to game design than
just playing a game,” she said. “And they may not realize that.”
While she wants students to master these professional tools, she also
wants them to leave with soft skills so they’re not just fluent in how
to code a game, but how to navigate a professional work environment.
“Games and programs are not built by one individual usually,” she said.
“It takes a team, and learning how to work on a team is an important
skill that students learn. From ... communication, time management,
integrity, organizational skills and others, soft skills are important
to them so they can be able to compete and function successfully in the
job market.”
Gateways to broadening computer science diversity
Video games not only tap into students’ interests, they can also help
bridge excitement for computer science classes. Yet while most teens
have played a video game, most high schools in the nation don’t have
computer science in their curricula, said Jake Baskin, executive
director of the Computer Science Teachers Association in Chicago,
Illinois.
But for those schools looking to use video game design and programming
as a gateway to new CS courses, Baskin said they should be clear about
what the courses will entail — both to students who want to sign up,
and to the educators about what they want to convey.
“It’s important that video game development does not mean free range to
play video games as much as you want,” he said. “When video game
development is taught in a way that includes vigorous [computer
science] education, that’s a wonderful way to ensure students engage in
high-quality content.”
Baskin also believes game design and programming courses can give
schools and districts an opportunity to think intentionally about
equity and inclusion, ensuring they’re welcoming all students, as women
and students of colors are historically "dramatically underrepresented
in CS courses," he said.
And where districts have been “thoughtful from the start,” Baskin said,
there’s been increased engagement in CS courses and also increases in
young women taking AP exams in computer science, as well.
“I think there are opportunities to integrate [computer science] in
almost any curricula,” he said. “And for principals who say they don’t
have funding, I would ask them to think creatively where they have
resources, and where they can be integrated.”
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