WABI interviews researchers about Minecraft, STEM interest study

WABI (Channel 5) spoke with Bruce Segee, the Henry R. and Grace V. Butler Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maine; Craig Mason, a UMaine professor of education; and Ami Gaspar, an advanced computing outreach specialist with IT, about a three-year, $2 million research project that will use a popular video game to immerse rural Maine students in computer science and math concepts. The National Science Foundation project aims 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). The researchers plan 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. “Minecraft is just an incredibly popular video game with kids,” Segee said. “It’s a highly creative and very flexible platform that kids are already spending great amounts of time on, so we might as well harness that energy towards education.” Mason said the project is a great way to introduce more fundamental learning skills. “I think that’s part of the hook with this idea,” he said. “That children will start learning to program and they won’t even realize that is what they’re doing.”