Engineering girls gone wild: Developing an engineering identity in Digital Zoo.

Svarovsky, G. N., & Shaffer, D. W. (2006). Engineering girls gone wild: Developing an engineering identity in Digital Zoo. Poster at the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), Bloomington, IN. http://epistemicgames.org/cv/papers/svarovsky_shaffer_icls_poster_2006.pdf

Abstract:

In the Digital Zoo epistemic game, middle school girls work as engineers to design virtual, ambulatory creatures. The activities of the game were based on an ethnographic study of an undergraduate engineering design course. As a result of gameplay, the girls demonstrated an increase in thinking of themselves as engineers. Moreover, both the girls and undergraduates linked their engineering identity development to meeting with–and getting feedback from–external clients and experts.