Project NEO: Assessing and Changing Preservice Teacher Science Knowledge with a Video Game

The need for STEM majors for our future workforce is growing, yet fewer students are choosing to major in STEM areas, and many are under prepared, in part because elementary school preservice teachers (PSTs) are also under prepared. This NSF-supported project developed and tested the first of several planned modules of a video game based on the Next Generation Science Standards. Results suggest that PSTs who play the video game demonstrate improved science content knowledge. The study also found that PSTs had positive attitudes toward video games as instructional tools. Implications for PST education relating to games and science education are discussed.