Dear Smart Girl: Game-Based STEM Career Exploration For Elementary Aged Girls

During Phase I in 2022, the team developed a prototype module for electrical engineering, including a digital game and a hands-on activity. In the online activity students created a virtual light-up headband using circuitry, with the software providing hints and cues to students they progressed.  During the hands-on activity, students were given a physical kit with circuitry to create a real light-up headband. At the end of Phase I, in a pilot study with 112 grade 5 female students, the research team found that the prototype digital game and physical kit both functioned as planned, students were engaged and could successfully transfer knowledge from the game to the hands-on replica project, and students showed increases in basic knowledge of circuits in a pre- to -post assessment.

In Phase II of the project, the team will fully develop the product, including an additional seven online modules with story arcs and accompanying physical kits, post activity student assessments, and an educator dashboard to capture student progress in the digital game. Iterative refinements will be conducted with feedback from educators and students at major production milestones until the product is fully functional. After development concludes, a pilot study will test the feasibility and usability, fidelity of implementation, and the promise of the product for improving science learning among girls. The team will collect data from 20 grade school classes with 400 female students overall, with half randomly assigned to use the product and the other half to use business-as-usual activities for the same course content.  Researchers will compare pre-and-post scores on researcher developed measures of content knowledge and will measure interest in STEM careers using the Science Motivation Questionnaire II, the STEM Career Interest Survey, and the Student Attitudes toward STEM. Researchers will gather cost information using the "ingredients method" and will include all expenditures on things such as personnel, facilities, equipment, materials, and training.