Join us for our next TechTalks event - Through My Window: Engaging Youth in Careers in Engineering!
On Wednesday, July 22, 2015, join Alyson Gill, Associate Provost for Instructional Innovation, Dave Hart, Director of Center for Educational Software Development (CESD), Matthew Mattingly, Asst. Director of Web Development & Multimedia, and members of the development team, as they present on the importance of exposing students to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields at a young age. The talk will focus on one of the many success stories currently taking place at UMass Amherst and in the surrounding communities, Through My Window, an adventure game for middle school students.
The event will take place from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the UMass Integrative Learning Center, Room 140.
Event Description
UMass Amherst IT's Center for Educational Software Development (CESD) is collaborating with Smith College and Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) faculty and students to create an online adventure game, with stories and activities intended to attract middle school students, especially girls, to careers in Engineering. Currently, the Drupal-based website features an eBook version of an original novel, "Talk to Me," and the first of a series of interactive Learning Adventures, "Rio's Brain," which explores the field of Artificial Intelligence. Learning Adventures combine graphic novels, interactivity, animation, video, games, and a shared journal, to engage and challenge students.
Through My Window is primarily intended for use in after school programs and other education settings. However, you can use it as an individual as well. You can read the eBook without logging in, but you will need to create an account to do the Rio's Brain Learning Adventure. You can try it out at throughmywindow dot org. (Mollum blocks direct links in posts, apparently)
Through My Window is funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Informal Science Education grant. It is in the early stages of adoption and is being used by various programs, including the Bridgeport, CT school system and the Girls Inc. Eureka! program here at UMass Amherst.