On July 7, Ci3's Game Changer Chicago Design Lab (GCC) launched S.E.E.D, its second summer STEM program on The University of Chicago campus.
With 75 participating high school students from Chicago's South and West Sides, S.E.E.D. takes the form of an extended game with a unifying narrative, played over three weeks using a variety of activities to solve Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) and arts-related challenges. This program will be followed by a two-week game design workshop, in which youth will use STEM skills honed over the previous three weeks to create their own games.
According to GCC Co-Founder, Dr. Patrick Jagoda:
[S.E.E.D.] connect[s] art and humanities-oriented critical thinking with STEM. Currently, women and persons of color are underrepresented in STEM education and careers. This lack of diversity produces representational imbalances, decreases job opportunities, and narrows possibilities for innovation in both the theoretical and applied sciences. We hope that an engrossing narrative, a participatory game, and a multidisciplinary curriculum will help connect our students to these fields. Along the way, we are interested in youth developing twenty-first century literacies that include interpersonal collaborative abilities as well as new media and design skills. Many high schools lack the resources to tackle literacies linked directly to digital technologies, systems thinking, and social networks. Such capacities might prepare youth not only for their future professions but also for the forms of serious thought and critical making that are essential to inhabiting America in our historical moment.
We invite you to follow S.E.E.D. on social media:
- Follow Game Changer Chicago on Facebook and Twitter, for up-to-the-minute photos, videos and updates
- Tune in to our daily developers' blog on Tumblr to learn about the program through the eyes of its designers and creators
- Sign up for our mailing list to receive a weekly newsletter, with "best-of" highlights, photos and youth testimonials
S.E.E.D. is part of the Chicago City of Learning, and is made possible by the support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Neubauer Family Collegium for Culture and Society at The University of Chicago, Aramark Higher Education, and The University of Chicago Humanities Division and Humanities Visiting Committee.