After reveling in the glow of Gen-Con (check out the photos on FB), our Lab director Mary Flanagan has just announced that starting this September, we are launching into a new project to develop games that explore nuanced aspects of stereotype threat and implicit bias! The project “Transforming Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) For Women and Girls: Reworking Stereotypes & Bias” has three primary goals: 1) To understand how games could be used to shift the current cultural understandings around STEM fields; 2) challenge these stereotypes by making learning activities into games for girls– and the community–to play, and 3) develop a set a of design principles in order to recommend approaches to activities and games that increase girls’ self esteem and interest in STEM. Resulting games that incorporate the design principles will be tested with the target audience, iterated, and released for distribution on the Tiltfactor.org website and in partnership with Seattle’s EdLab, home of the National Girls Collaborative Project.
Congrats to the Tiltfactor Team!