High-Level Project Summary
Get in partnership with NASA! We designed a game that will engage young girls into the STEM world through understanding the basic concepts and capabilities of the James Webb Telescope. Using an exploratory methodology based on problems, she will understand the role of each component and the science behind the creation of images with the James Webb Telescope.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
What exactly does it do?
Our project it's an educational video game for kids between 13-17 years old. The story tells us about Sofia, a girl from a rural area of Colombia who has an interest in science and space. One day, she has the opportunity to join in a NASA Challenge to ensamble a telescope (JWST) and improve its capabilities to learn more and be a member of the NASA Team. During the game, Sofia will receive packages from NASA with instructions to ensemble the parts of the James Webb Telescope.This environment has 3 vignates, one in relation to the ensemble of the telescope, a storage deposit with minigames with basic concepts and themes related to James Webb Telescope to unblock and use the parts sent by NASA and finally one gallery where she can collect and see the images that get unlocked, this last tool will give her an idea of how close is she to obtain the ideal Telescope.
The game has the following structure after Sofia gets the package from NASA. 1) A book with basic concepts she needs to understand: electromagnetic spectrum, optics and light reflection, image processing, observational astronomy, thermodynamics and electromechanics and 2) James Webb Technology and Developments: History and launching, purpose, mirrors, Near-infrared spectrograph, Mid-infrared instrument, Near-infrared camera and Near-infrared imager and slitless spectrograph. The Telescope would have up to 4 unlockable modules in each round of the game, when the round is achieved Sofia would gain another module, in the path to complete the telescope Sofia would learn about other fantastic women's in science, they would explain interesting science concepts and information to Sofia and encourage her to pursue her dreams.
The gameplay needs to have the following considerations: It needs to be fun and also a learning experience to get young girls interested in science and persue academic careers, taking advantage of the multidisciplinarity that astronomy offers with areas like physics, math, chemistry and coding. To achieve this, we need an immersive experience (physical immersive experience is not adequate thus the expensive cost of hardware), so the game is based on the conceptual understanding of science concepts and prepare the player to understand the functionality of each module on the James Webb Telescope.
Why is this important now and in this context?
Worldwide, women are underrepresented in STEM programs. In Colombia most girls graduate from programs related to humanities and social sciences,but not nature sciences. This data is consistent with the fact that only 38.1 % of women are registered as investigators, of which 31% are doing research in STEM areas (2). Researchers point out performance, learning experiences, family support and role models as determinants in the choice of an academic program (1). With our proposal, we expect to improve learning experiences and role models to encourage women into the STEM world.
Space Agency Data
We were inspired by previous games developed by NASA and ESA created to engage childrens. We wanted to create a narrative to guide people into this incredible content and we also created a tool to learn the main concepts to understand how a Telescope functions by playing. We also have plans to use the image repositories and short videos provided by NASA, ESA and the CSA as resources in our game.
Hackathon Journey
The experience was really enjoyable for us, we learned to work in a multidisciplinary team with all the challenges that means, we had many ideas and learn how to organize them to get the best out of each one, recognizing that all of them have a really important part that would be desirable to achieve, but understanding the limitation of our knowledge and resources. The opportunity to express a perspective of the problem from our country and our sociocultural conditions is always an exercise that enriches not only our technical and academic knowledge, but also allows us to connect with our most human and artistic side.
References
- Brecha digital de género: el acceso de las mujeres a las carreras de Ciencia, Tecnología, Ingeniería y Matemáticas (STEM) en Colombia 2001-2020 – Camara Colombiana de Comercio Electrónico. (n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://www.ccce.org.co/noticias/brecha-digital-de-genero-el-acceso-de-las-mujeres-a-las-carreras-de-ciencia-tecnologia-ingenieria-y-matematicas-stem-en-colombia-2001-2020/
- ESA - MIRI factsheet. (n.d.). Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/MIRI_factsheet
- ESA - James Webb Space Telescope launch kit. (n.d.). Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/James_Webb_Space_Telescope_launch_kit
- James Webb Space Telescope Videos | NASA. (n.d.). Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/webb/videos/index.html
Tags
#James Webb #Gamification #Women in Science #STEM