SBIR-STTR Award

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I research project will develop a scalable game design environment, including curriculum, with the goal of increasing the participation of students in K-12 computer science education. Partially due to exaggerated fears of job outsourcing, enrollment in University-level computer science programs is dropping at an alarming rate. Another, more fundamental problem is a broken pipeline effect in which K-12 students simply fail to get interested in computer science courses. Advanced placement courses offer a methodical introduction to computer science, but their focus on abstract programming and the lack of motivating applications has resulted in dwindling participation. Multimedia courses are popular, but often are little more than advanced PowerPoint tutorials. Game design, when done in a scalable way, can provide an ideal balance between motivational and academic concerns of computer science. Game design can also be matched to the existing Fluency with Information Technology framework recommended by the National Academies of Sciences. The proposed research will explore scalable design by building a low-threshold, high-ceiling design environment based on Incremental 3D model creation and programming. The research will incorporate this environment into a scalable design curriculum. This scalable design should provide an attractive route to the effective design, development and deployment of an exceptionally large spectrum of games ranging from simple 2D Frogger-type games to 3D Sims-type games.

The proposed technology should dramatically increase the number of K-12 students interested in computer science, which in turn will result in larger enrollment in computer science at the university level. Without stronger computer science enrollments the US cannot maintain an internationally competitive IT workforce. A less abstract programming, more design-based IT curriculum should also increase the participation of women and minorities. Further, the resulting general environment can be employed as a simulation-authoring tool for computational science and, through Web integration (e.g. with Google Earth), as computational cyberinfrastructure. The user audience will include K-12 students, university students, scientists, engineers and members of the general public interested in computational 3D applications. The commercialization pathway utilizes a novel business model based on offering the technology as a consumer tool that will be free for K-12 but sold as a special take-home deal to students interested in using the technology at home. Additional revenue will be created through product support such as game design workshops and curriculum development. The open nature of the tool will permit the development of extensions such as plug-ins, as well as integration with existing rich-media technology such as a 3D modeler.

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will build a Scalable Game Design tool and curriculum, with the goal of increasing the participation of students in Computer Science (CS). K-12 computer education fails to attract the necessary number of students to CS - especially at the middle school level, where students make critical career decisions by judging their own aptitudes towards math and science. This is a serious problem because, despite the growing need for IT workers, enrollment in undergraduate CS programs is dropping at alarming rates. Scalable Game Design provides an ideal balance between motivational and academic concerns of CS. This approach is based on the existing Fluency with Information Technology framework recommended by the National Academies of Sciences and will be aligned with the emerging National IT education standards (ISTE NETS). This project will explore Scalable Game Design by building a low-threshold, high-ceiling design tool, called AgentCubes, featuring Incremental 3D modeling, animation, programming, and visualization. The project will incorporate the tool into a 3D Gamelet Design curriculum to provide an attractive route to the effective design, development, and deployment of an exceptionally large spectrum of games - ranging from simple 2D Frogger-like games to 3D Sims-type games. The proposed technology has a high potential to increase the number of K-12 students interested in Computer Science (CS), which in turn should result in larger enrollments at the university level. Without stronger CS enrollments the US cannot maintain an internationally competitive IT workforce. A less programming-focused, more design-based IT curriculum is likely to increase the participation of women and minorities. Initial results from our feasibility study indicate that Incremental 3D approaches work across ethnicity and gender. The proposed 3-stage classroom integration strategy is based on a pipeline of required, elective, and transitional modules that introduce students to making simple games, move to more advanced games and computational science applications, and transition to traditional programming models. This strategy maximizes the exposure of public schools students in general, and women and minorities in particular, to computer science because all students will at least take the required one-week module. Furthermore, as a general end-user tool to create interactive 3D applications, the proposed technology will be useful beyond educational game design. Potential applications include computational science simulations, computational thinking tools and serious games with potential users such as university students, scientists, and engineers.