The Intruiging World of Educational Game Sites & STEM Presenters: Jackie McCarthy Trevor Rice

STEM Science, Technology, Engineering, Math

What is happening with STEM in America? 'America faces many challenges...but the enemy I fear most is complacency. We are about to be hit by the full force of global competition. If we continue to ignore the obvious task at hand while others beat us at our own game, our children and grandchildren will pay the price. We must now establish a sense of urgency.' --Charles Vest, President of the National Academy of Engineering, President Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Why does this matter? The fastest growing job markets are in STEM related fields These same job markets will continue to grow and are the future of employment worldwide Over 50% of Doctoral degrees from American Universities were issued to foreign students America is losing its role as world innovators

What opportunities can be pursued using STEM Jobs- Civil Engineer Software Engineer Network Specialist Natural Scientist Life Scientist Architect Energy Technologies

Diversity Issue Minorities and Women seeking STEM degrees are misrepresented within social makeup and they are also on the decline The United States needs to vastly improve its K-12 preparation for STEM fields and make careers in STEM available to all

What are we doing about this issue? America Competes Act American Competitiveness Initiative Various State Bills

Resources

E d u c a t i o n a l G a m e S i t e s

F A C T S O N G A M E S Of the 53 million K–12 students in the U.S., 51 million of them (or 93%) play video games. Educational Games Online, tap into the excitement of video games to engage today’s students but also help develop Skills. By allowing your students to play educational games on line you are helping them o Increased time on task o Increased student motivation and engagement o Increased corrective feedback

B E N E F I T S Students will play the games at home, and this will allow them to be relaxed, but also practice skills at the very same time Students will be responding to the challenges. The errors can be viewed as opportunities to improve rather than as an indication of failure. Although repetitious drills are known as kill drills, they can be fun, and these types of games can help students increase the time-on-task for drills and increase engagement through competition. By allowing student to play educational games online, it gives the students as well as the teachers immediate corrective feedback which allows room for improvement.

What Will Playing Games Do For Your Students? Games will enhance and build skills such as : o Math, logic, memory, vocabulary, alphabet, spelling, geography, computer skills, color identification, shape identification, various problems o Kids will be able to connect learning and skill building with a sense of challenge, fun and self-esteem.

F I N D I N G S 1.8%: increase in percent correct compared to flashcards* 26%: improvement in rate (how quickly a student correctly answers the problem) compared to flash cards 80%: of students improved their rate scores 9%: improvement of percent correct in students who scored below 80% in the pre- test *the pilot study was administered at the end of the school year - students had mastered subject items before the pre-test, so improvements in percent correct were not expected.

Examples of Educational Website Spelling/ Vocabulary Website: o this allows students to copy their vocabulary words in then have the opportunity to take a spelling test, take a vocabulary test, play games and even go through a lesson of teaching the words o is a website that allows students to play games that are at their level. It even provides teachers with the ability to put in the subject matter wanted to concentrate on and the age or ability level appropriate. o Here there are multiple different subject areas where student can explore through and this site includes various levels of playing

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