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Asset Based Learning Environments with Dream2B
Model Math Education (ModelME) with embedded Dream2B game is an integrated supplemental curriculum for 4th-6th grade inclusive settings. The program engages students in universally-designed problem-solving challenges rooted in authentic STEM and ICT careers. Executive function scaffolds, action adaptive nudges, and dynamic assessments are embedded throughout the game and the wrap around curriculum. The program has been used by over 15 teachers and 350 elementary and middle school students and their teachers in both rural and urban settings in North Carolina, California, and Florida who are underrepresented in STEM. Pilot testing suggests the capacity of the program to increase engagement in and understanding of fraction concepts along with students’ interest in STEM careers. The game is now progressing into a Gold build, which will involve updated narratives, character voices, and introduction. We will also update and finalize the wrap around curriculum package for final dissemination.
Pillar 1: Innovative Use of Technologies in Learning and Teaching
The use of the video game with wrap around curriculum defines learning as both individual and social. The use of the game provides students access to multiple ways of engaging, representing, and expressing knowledge, which sets the stage for students to connect gameplay strategies with others' ways of reasoning as strategies are discussed and connected to the big ideas of fractions.
Pillar 2: Partnerships for Career and Workforce Preparation.
We ensure students obtain the prerequisite knowledge and skills to be successful in middle and high school algebra courses by bolstering fundamental conceptual understanding of fractions, a cornerstone of algebraic thinking. The curriculum and videogame provides students with a virtual coach across five ICT and STEM careers that guide students as they engage in problem solving adventures, educating them in career facts along the way.
Pillar 3: Strategies for Equity in STEM Education
We center disability as an identity – as opposed to the “typical” learner - in our game through the use of Universal Design For Learning, which we tested in inclusive, whole class settings. Students with disabilities’ thinking is also centered in the wrap around curriculum. For example, we elevate the diversity and power of students’ thinking, whether those strategies are supported with drawings, models, or symbols. This celebrates and represents the diversity of students’ experiences and ways of reasoning.
Discipline(s)
Interdisciplinary
Other
Target Gradespan(s)
Elementary school (K-5)
Middle school (6-8)
Target Participant(s)
Youth / students
Educators
Participants with disabilities
Project Setting(s)
Formal Education
Informal Education
Category
Developing and Testing Innovations (DTI)