MIT STEP Lab partners with New Mexico State University to study youth’s understanding of decision trees and neural networks.
Projects Demo
What It Could Look Like
Collaborative AI for Learning (CAIL)
Researching and Designing AI Integration tools for Group- and Inquiry-based Learning
DC-Models
This project is an RPP with the DC school district to integrate computational modeling into their high school science courses, build capacity and train teachers to teach these units, and do research on longitudinal impact on students
(Collaborative project with DCPS and Salem State University)
RAICA-Responsible AI for Computational Action
The STEP Lab is collaborating with MIT RAISE to design the Responsible AI for Computational Action (RAICA) curriculum. Responsible AI for Computational Action curriculum is project-based learning modules that prepare middle school students to be informed consumers and ethical producers of artificial intelligence (AI). At its core, the curriculum aims to be socially impactful, empowering, creative, and inclusive for students and teachers, with learning objectives that focus on increasing students’ capacity and develop their ability to use artificial intelligence, design thinking, ethical frameworks, and computational thinking to design thoughtful solutions to real problems.
Revolution
Revolution is the Education Arcade’s multi-player, American Revolution-themed role-playing game based on historical events in the town of colonial Williamsburg. Set in 1775, on the eve of violent revolt in the colony of Virginia, the game gives students an opportunity to experience the daily social, economic, and political lives of the town’s inhabitants.
iCue
The More We Know, a book by Eric Klopfer and Jason Haas, describes the rise and fall of iCue, a new media experience designed to support high school social sciences teaching and learning.
Supercharged!
This game places students in a three dimensional environment where they must navigate a spaceship by controlling the electric charge of the ship, placing charged particles around the space.
Kids Survey Network
In 2008, Education Arcade was awarded a sub-contract under TERC, Inc., with NSF funding, to develop three multi-player flash games and a series of video tutorials that teaches basic survey-making skills, concepts, and vocabulary to middle school age adolescents.
Open Language and Learning Games
The Education Arcade partnered with The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to consolidate and disseminate current research on the use of games for learning.
Preparing High School Students for Endeavors in Machine Learning (SRMPmachine)
MIT STEP Lab partners with American Museum of Natural History to offer AI education to underserved youth in NYC.
Everyday AI for Youth (EdAI)
Everyday AI for Youth (EdAI) is a research and design project examining the impact of a professional development model for educators learning to teach their middle school students about artificial intelligence (AI). The EdAI project is a collaboration between MIT, Boston College, and partnering school districts and out-of-school time (OST) program providers. It is a three-year project involving roughly 30 middle school teachers and over 900 middle school students, who engage with AI concepts and tools. Central to the intervention is the Developing AI Literacy (DAILy) curriculum consisting of a series of existing AI and “Ethics and AI” activities. EdAI gives middle school teachers the training, content knowledge, and pedagogy to engage middle school students in AI, and prepare them for computationally-intensive industries of the future, particularly those that incorporate AI technologies.
Tragedy of the Commons (PSim)
Tragedy of the Commons (ToC) is a Psim game about economics and population biology.
Virus Game (PSim)
Players draw on each other’s observations to develop a hypothesis and agree on an experiment to conduct.
Project-Based Learning Networks
Teacher professional development centered on Project-Based Learning and designing lessons that are student-centered and inquiry-driven
StarLogo Nova
StarLogo Nova is a programming environment that lets students and teachers create 3D games and simulations for understanding complex systems.
Reach Every Reader
Reach Every Reader is a collaboration across Harvard, MIT, and the Florida Center for Reading Research, supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The goal of the larger project is to bring together a number of strands to create a support system that enables every child to become a strong, confident reader.
pSims (Participatory Simulations)
The MIT STEP Lab has developed a suite of mobile-device enabled activities called pSims, short for participatory simulations. These pSims leverage mobile devices (e.g., smartphones) to enable participants to engage in active, inquiry-based learning through their interactions with the simulation, and coordination and discussion with one another.
Project GUTS
Project GUTS — Growing Up Thinking Scientifically — is an integrated science and computer science program for middle school students serving schools and districts nationally and internationally. Growing up thinking scientifically means learning to look at the world and to ask questions, developing and using computer models that help answer questions through scientific inquiry, and using critical thinking to assess which models are reasonable and which are not. To grow up thinking scientifically means knowing science to be a computing-rich, dynamic, creative endeavor, a way of thinking, rather than a body of facts.
CLEVR: Collaborative Learning Environments in Virtual Reality
The Collaborative Learning Environments in Virtual Reality (CLEVR) project is to create immersive virtual reality learning experiences that can be used in today’s classrooms. CLEVR is a partnership between the Education Arcade and the MIT Game Lab, and is supported by Oculus. We are developing a collaborative educational game using immersive 3DVR to help teams of 9th grade students learn cell biology and the central dogma.
Taleblazer
TaleBlazer is a blocks-based software environment for creating and playing location-based augmented reality (AR) games.
Imagination Toolbox
Imagination Toolbox is a fun, creative PD workshop for educators to learn how to bring rich and engaging computational modeling and/or gaming experiences to their students using StarLogo Nova.
Science and Engineering Program for Teachers (SEPT)
For one week every summer, teachers from across the world gather on MIT’s campus to learn more about the groundbreaking research that is happening on campus. Teachers attend presentations and lectures presented by MIT professors and then reflect on their own curriculum and how they could utilize what they’ve learned back at their own schools.
BioGraph
BioGraph is a series of high school biology units and support materials using agent-based computer models to explore complex systems.
CLIx: Connected Learning Initiative
The Connected Learning Initiative (CLIx) is a technology-enabled initiative at scale for high school students. The initiative was seeded by Tata Trusts, Mumbai and is led by Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA USA. CLIx offers a scalable and sustainable model of open education, to meet the educational needs of students and teachers. The initiative has won UNESCO’s prestigious 2017 King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the field of Education.
The Radix Endeavor
The Radix Endeavor is an online multiplayer game designed to augment math and biology instruction. Students use their knowledge of math and science to solve quests in a virtual Earth-like world.
Gameblox
Gameblox is a blocks-based programming tool designed specifically for making and playing games.
Lure of the Labyrinth
Lure of the Labyrinth is in online game that uses a a compelling graphic novel storyline to engage middle grades students in mathematical thinking and problem-solving.
UbiqBio (Ubiquitous Biology Games)
Ubiquitous Bio (or UbiqBio) is a series of casual mobile games designed to promote deep learning and strong engagement for high school biology students in the areas of genetics, protein synthesis, evolution, and food webs.
Vanished
Vanished is a curated Alternate Reality game exposing middle grades students to careers in STEM by engaging them in the work of scientists.
StarLogo TNG
StarLogo TNG is a downloadable programming environment that lets students and teachers create 3D games and simulations for understanding complex systems.
iCue
iCue, developed in collaboration with NBC Learn, combined social networks, online video and games to make the news more accessible and engaging, as well as promote the exploration of current events in unconventional ways.