Middle school girls engage in four week version of Digital Zoo

Based on the results from the 2005 version of Digital Zoo, a longer, 80-hour version was developed for implementation in 2006. Twelve middle school girls worked in teams of three as part of the Digital Zoo Prototype Development Department to develop a series of animated, wire-frame characters that expressed a particular emotion, using the Sodaconstructor spring-mass modeling environment.

Advanced undergraduate engineering students functioned as design advisors to the teams, providing feedback and guidance with the design process as needed. A panel of three engineering experts came in at the end of each week for a formal design review with the design teams, creating a professional setting for the players to present their engineering progress. Preliminary results demonstrate that the players were able to learn about concepts in physics (such as center of mass) and biomechanics (such as gait). In addition, players began to develop the epistemic frame of engineering, as evidenced by an increased understanding of the design process and the profession as a whole.

In-game data from this iteration of the game will be explored using Epistemic Network Analysis techniques.