Media report on $2M project to study Minecraft’s effect on interest in STEM
The Bangor Daily News and The Maine Edge reported on a three-year, $2 million research project being led by University of Maine researchers that will use a popular video game to immerse rural Maine students in computer science and math concepts. Bruce Segee, the Henry R. and Grace V. Butler Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UMaine, is leading the National Science Foundation project to better understand and promote practices to increase the likelihood that students will gain important skills and ultimately pursue careers in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM). NSF awarded $1,999,695 for the researchers to develop and utilize an educational curriculum for rural middle school children that would engage them with programming, spatial reasoning and problem-solving skills by using Minecraft. “The use of computer games as a mechanism for teaching computer science concepts while also improving the effectiveness of the core curriculum is incredibly exciting,” Segee said. “We believe that we will see an improvement in student learning across multiple areas.”