With the STEM workforce in need of a boost, businesses and policymakers have tried various things to infuse more STEM-based learning into both primary and higher education. Iowa’s STEM Advisory Council has handed out grants to create programs in areas that need to be filled with workers, and the Governor of North Carolina has declared April STEM Month to raise awareness of the need, among other efforts. In a slightly less conventional effort, a STEM curriculum provider last month used web-based game creation software to develop a new high school curriculum for game design and programming.
In conjunction with the web-based Construct 3 platform, STEM Fuse – a South Dakota-based company that develops digital STEM and computer science curricula for K-12 schools – announced at last month’s ISTELive 22 conference that its new GAME: IT Advanced program for high schools would be ready for the fall semester. In it, students, without needing basic coding knowledge, will work on creating games for mobile devices while learning the intricacies of the physical, mechanical, and multiplayer aspects involved, as well as in-app ads, UX design, and UI, marketing and monetization, according to a press release. Additionally, students who complete the program will receive an introduction to JavaScript, he said.
STEM Fuse Founder and CEO Carter Tatge said in a public statement that the company is focused on improving STEM education through a program that is easy to implement and can be used by students with low or no background in coding and game design.
“We designed our game design journey to include Construct 3 for two simple yet powerful reasons: ease of use and flexibility,” Tatge said. “Construct 3 has plenty of capability and power for advanced users to create professional, studio-quality games and products.”
The program, according to Tatge, starts with beginner-level drag-and-drop coding and moves on to learning and programming with JavaScript for the more advanced user, integrating game design, computing, STEM, and programming. multimedia technology. And at the end of the course, according to the release, students can choose to take an industry certification exam.
The press release states that GAME:IT Advanced is the latest in the series released by STEM Fuse. Other iterations include GAME:IT Elementary, GAME:IT Junior, and GAME:IT Intermediate. The advanced version is recommended for students in grades 10 to 12, according to the release.
This isn’t the first time STEM Fuse has made headlines this year for the release of the program. In April, the company worked with Full Sail University to give teachers from hundreds of schools in the southeastern United States two years of free access to the digital curriculum as well as professional development.
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