Aspects of Games Enjoyed by Middle School Girls Stephanie Eordanidis Advisor: Carolee Stewart Computer Science Department, Kean University ABSTRACT RESULTS Tangrams Spreadsheet Results We examined 26 STEM related games of both analog and digital nature. Some of the games contained an explicit story, while more than half of the games analyzed had a fictional setting. We then created a spreadsheet to document characteristics about each game, such as story, setting, protagonist type, number of players, and the game mechanics. The games selected and used in the focus groups were influenced based on the data and tests done with the games analyzed in the spreadsheet. Focus Group Results Minecraft : Participants liked the freedom to create, destroy, build, experiment, and discover in Minecraft Tangrams: Participants enjoyed working cooperatively in teams, and liked the competition of the two teams pinned against each other. Codecombat: Participants enjoyed controlling their character through the use of code. They found the game to be easy to learn how to do the coding. They also enjoyed how the game has the look and feel of a video game instead of a book or instruction set. Computer Science concepts, principles, and logical thinking are becoming more prevalent in our everyday lives. There is a growing need for the youth of today to become more interested and aware of this, and begin adapting to this change by learning to think more like a computer scientist. What better way to do this than through the use of games. This study is part of a larger research endeavor funded by the NSF DRL-AISL research Grant ( Award Number:1421806), and focuses on how to teach computer science concepts to middle school aged females specifically with the use of story in educational computer science games. We aim to discover if story in educational CS games are a help or hindrance in either appealing to middle school aged girls or teaching them computer science and computational thinking. To accomplish our goal, we began by researching, testing, and documenting existing computer science and educational games of both digital and analog format. The data we gathered from this was then used to narrow down and determine which games should be used in the next stage of the research, which was the focus groups. We held several focus groups with middle school aged girls to determine what game features and concepts they found interesting or enjoyable along with other information such as their interests, favorite television shows, and books. The information gathered from the focus groups will be used to design and create our games at a later date as stated above. We chose Tangrams as one game to utilize in the focus groups. Tangrams was chosen because it involves abstraction, procedural thinking, cooperation, and strategy. Codecombat CONCLUSIONS Codecombat is a web-based coding game we chose for one of the focus groups. The focus groups have revealed that middle school aged girls show delight in digital and non-digital games. We identified the different kinds of features and story lines they enjoy, and will utilize these findings in the creation of the prototypes of the games we will produce. INTRODUCTION & METHODOLOGY Minecraft FUTURE WORKS This research study was conducted to discover whether or not story is an important factor in influencing middle school girls to either be more interested in or to learn computer science concepts and computational thinking. We gathered data on existing educational and CS games to choose two games to use for each of the focus groups we held. The focus groups consisted of 2-4 middle school aged girls whom we gathered pertinent information from, (i.e. favorite and least favorite books, movies, subject in school, games, and what type of stories they would like to see in games), and had them each play the 2 games we had selected. Upon completion of the games we asked the girls questions in reference to the games we presented to them. The information collected from the focus groups is intended to be used in the creation of games of our own design by the end of summer 2015. The information we gather will be used to create three versions of three different games of our own design. Spring 2015 is set to begin the design phase of the three analog games to teach computer science concepts. In summer 2015 we aim to create prototypes of the three different versions of three different games, each game having a straightforward version, a version with context, and a full story version. The games will then be tested out in an after school program setting with middle school aged girls at the projected date of fall 2015. Another game we chose to use in our focus groups was Minecraft. Minecraft is a well known game that is fun for the user and was chosen due to its creating factor. References [1] "CodeCombat: Learn to Code by Playing a Game." CodeCombat. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2015 [2] "Minecraft." Minecraft. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.