Video games: a route to large-scale STEM education?

I have been caught up with changing my major and going back and forth on which degree program at ASU so I have only had time to research articles and read. I am including an article that stood out the most to me this week. 

First, the author claims that video games are useful because it strengthens the student's ability to learn and retain the material. Next, the author claims, which I found shocking that video games help students become more social and engaged with achievement. This achievement is due to the continuous and immediate feedback of the game. A study backs this up called the Atlantis Project.

STEM game tasks usually require the student to be able to form a hypothesis, experimentation and discover the outcomes of chosen actions and can be compared to inquiry-based learning. Also, this will allow students to spend more time on the task to retain the information and learn it better.

Lastly, this eliminates the statistic that many sciences and engineer majors claim that 98% of the faculty they had teaching them taught very poorly, affecting them in a negative way of dropping the major entirely.

Article mentioned and image below are from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23716386_Video_games_A_route_to_large-scale_STEM_education 

Hectic Week and Major Change

Taking mainly degree-focused classes this semester made me realize that I do want to stay in my field but that the general I.T. degree is not for me. My passion is web development, and I decided to pursue that route. I have had to hassle getting in contact with people and making appointments but I have my appointment to officially change my major in 2 weeks. Speaking with Maria and Josh allowed me to ask and get the information I needed before making any decisions. I was thankful for having the opportunity to speak to a student already at ASU in the program I thought I wanted to do and for receiving the insight I expected. As far as research I have collected a few articles but not much progress has been done since I thought I was going to be dropped from TRAIN. I have to keep adding my sources to the rough draft and reading them for key points. I am glad that I will be able to stay in this program until I can. Overall, nothing to report this week other than a quick update. 

Image from: https://unsplash.com/photos/eYpcLDXHVb0 

Research Paper Rough Draft

Action video games that have been in studies have been found to enhance many cognitive skills. Developing an action video game to reveal the importance of bats and their conservation will benefit bats, the environment, and the user playing. Therefore, it the game can be an attempt at saving bats from extinction and will benefit the user’s cognitive skills long-term. Video games enhancing cognitive skills is not a new concept, there have been many studies already done on different skills and different areas of the brain being exercised with certain games. Most studies have been done on users who play action video games. Action video games are known to improve attentional skills, reaction times, the ability to rotate objects more accurately, and make better decisions under pressure. In one study inside the Scientific American by Daphne Bavelier and Shawn Green, psychological tests were done on individuals who were instructed to play action video games. The game in the test consists of items flashing on the screen in intervals, less than a blink of the eye. The individuals who do not play action video games found more difficulty identifying the first item and even more the second item, experiencing the phenomenon of attentional blink. On the other hand, the individuals who were action video gamers caught every item flashed. Brain scans were done and found the differences between gamers and non-gamers. Gamers brain scans found that the cerebral cortex, which regulates attention had more activity. Also, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex which aids in sustaining attention, parietal cortex which helps focus on switching back and forth among different items, and the cingulate cortex, which is responsible for monitoring one’s behavior all showed more activity (Bavelier & Green, 2016). Since action video games are very rewarding, they will promote learning by providing a rewarding experience for every obstacle and every answer that is answered correctly. These skills can be useful later on in science and math classes due to the improvement in mental rotation (Bavelier & Green, 2016). 

Image from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26047025