A Bayesian Analysis of Adolescent STEM Interest Using Minecraft

Matthew Gadbury, H. Chad Lane

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Minecraft continues to be a popular digital game throughout the world, and the ways in which adolescents play can provide insight into their existing interests. Through informal summer camps using Minecraft to expose middle school students to concepts in astronomy and earth science, we collected self-reports of STEM and Minecraft interest, as well as behavioral log data through player in-game interactions. Finding relationships between in-game behaviors and individual interest can provide insight into how educational experiences in digital games might be designed to support learner interests and competencies in STEM. Bayesian model averaging of data across camps was implemented to address the relatively small sample size of the data. Results revealed the important role of existing interest and knowledge for developing and sustaining interest.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationArtificial Intelligence in Education. Posters and Late Breaking Results, Workshops and Tutorials, Industry and Innovation Tracks, Practitioners, Doctoral Consortium and Blue Sky - 24th International Conference, AIED 2023, Proceedings
EditorsNing Wang, Genaro Rebolledo-Mendez, Vania Dimitrova, Noboru Matsuda, Olga C. Santos
PublisherSpringer
Pages384-389
Number of pages6
ISBN (Print)9783031363351
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023
Event24th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education , AIED 2023 - Tokyo, Japan
Duration: Jul 3 2023Jul 7 2023

Publication series

NameCommunications in Computer and Information Science
Volume1831 CCIS
ISSN (Print)1865-0929
ISSN (Electronic)1865-0937

Conference

Conference24th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education , AIED 2023
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityTokyo
Period7/3/237/7/23

Keywords

  • Bayesian analysis
  • Digital games
  • informal learning
  • interest

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Computer Science
  • General Mathematics

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