Games for STEM learning for girls

The solution aims to develop and deploy a suite of low-cost mobile games to strengthen practical skills, competencies, and experiential learning opportunities, particularly in STEM and digital literacy, for girls and young women to effectively transition from education to employment. 

Learning outcomes in STEM fields are reflective of a learning crisis, and it is hitting women the hardest.

The game design will involve disadvantaged female students. Characters and storylines will be inspired by female students to enhance relatability and ownership.

Several researches have associated "STEM drop-out" with a weak foundation in Math -  a necessary skill in many scientific and technical curricula.

The math learning crisis affects disadvantage girls disproportionately. The World Development Report 2018: 'Learning to Realize Education's Promise' argues that without learning, education will fail to deliver on its promise to eliminate extreme poverty and create shared opportunity and prosperity for all. Even after several years in school, millions of children do basic math. This learning crisis is widening social gaps instead of narrowing them. Young students who are already disadvantaged by poverty, conflict, gender or disability reach young adulthood without even the most basic life skills.

One of the reasons for weak math foundations is that math is taught in a similar fashion as other subjects, with an emphasis on rote learning. Increasingly researchers believe that developing math skills requires creativity, grit, and mental gymnastics.

If we are to solve the learning crisis in Math among disadvantaged students, we have to rethink how we are teaching it! 

At GRID we create digital games offer a platform to educate, engage and empower our players in an effective manner. We believe in the saying “Tell me, & I will forget, show me, & I may remember, involve me, & I will understand” Confucius. 

The game will contribute to this outcome in the following ways:
1. By providing a fun and engaging way to supplement math teaching. -  William A. Taylor is a Secondary Mathematics Teacher at Wheatley Education Campus who is a recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award. Mr. Taylor believes that his students perform well in math because he ensures his classroom is a dynamic place, where every student eagerly participates and the excitement around learning is palpable. Games can add a kind of creativity, dynamism and problem-solving hunger to math learning that few other educational tools can and make every classroom in the DMV area like Mr. Taylor's classroom.

2. Giving an opportunity for disadvantaged students to catch up: Reign Through Games will allow students to continue their process of learning outside of school. This is a unique opportunity for disadvantaged female students to catch up with their peers while playing a free-to-download, fun game.

Girls between the ages of 10 - 18 in Pakistan. We will work with The Pakistan Alliance for Maths and Science, an informal collective of organizations working to highlight the importance of maths and science education., to partner with schools and design and deploy the games. 

The GRID team will create a mobile math game for students in the DMV area Public Schools, catered specifically towards disadvantaged female students. The game will make math learning fun for students who are falling behind in class. The GRID team will build on an existing partnership with FLOC DC and identify similar organizations that cater to students from low-income DMV neighborhoods

The solution builds on the experience of GRID's team where our developers worked with Govt of Gambia to create Gumbers, an educational game where the player is challenged to save the Mathematics subject from an alien invasion. The game Gumbers encourages math learning among Grade 3 students. Gumbers is being introduced at a national level across 150 schools in The Gambia. Pre-pilot results have shown that students and teachers are very keen in using the game as part of both in-class and out-of-class learning.  

The solution responds to the Challenge priority of Strengthening competencies, particularly in STEM and digital literacy, for girls and young women to effectively transition from education to employment. 

The solution games will build math competency and digital literacy through gameplay. 

There are more than one billion people living under $1.25 a day and almost the same number playing video games worldwide. The challenge of poverty is massive and so is the potential of video games.  With a push towards innovative use of technology in international development, and the effectiveness of games as learning tools, the stage is set for development games to be used for social change. 

Given their interactive, iterative, and inspiring nature, digital games appeal to human psychology in a way most other communication tools don’t and their impact on our brains far transcends the boundaries of the virtual world. Furthermore, by including relatable stories and vignettes, the games will provide an on-going learning experience to young girls and a simulated pathway that can inspire them to visualize and achieve their goals, hence becoming their own digital role models. 

GRID's approach towards behavior change is innovative and engaging. Harnessing the capacity of smartphones for behavior changes provides a low cost alternative to the heavy and expensive community level interventions. GRID is mainstreaming games in the social sector, not only in the US but also globally. By creating context-vigilant games (in local languages) for low-end smartphones, GRID has opened up the possibility of using games to educate, engage and empower people in all aspects of their lives irrespective of where they live. With total downloads of more than 15000, GRID is able to inspire people around a wide-range of social issues. 

Designed for low-end smartphones and minimal connectivity, the learning games will engage players through a dynamic and culturally relevant back story. In-app questions capture and track user knowledge acquisition. To ensure inclusive access and sustainable impact, the game will be been developed to be compatible with low-end smartphones. Most GRID games are small in size and do not require internet connectivity for gameplay.

GRID's own experience with games demonstrates their  effectiveness as behavior change tools. We have created games on reproductive health (MoHiM, Nari Paila & SurrEndo) on compassion for animals (KritterKneads), climate change (EarthFenders), and Coronavirus awareness (Coronacombat). Our reproductive health game, Nari Paila was launched in Nepal and had more than 10,000 downloads within the first ten weeks, exceeding it’s target reach by 3000. 32% of Nari Paila players are females of whom 71% are under the age of 24.  

Our Covid19 awareness game, CoronaCombat, is another example. We created the game in 9 days using our internal funds and launched it on April 10th. The game received immense attention, including a shout out by Chelsea Clinton on Twitter, as well as media coverage by ABC News. Since it's launch, the game has reached more than 1000 people with no marketing budget. CoronaCombat was translated into Urdu through a grant provided by American Pakistani Foundation. 

 The game will teach STEM and digital skills through interactive gameplay. 

The project will focus on designing and launching a mobile game that:

• Educates:  The game will build STEM and digital skill competencies mapped to grade leverls
• Engages: Provides a platform for young girls to play and network with each other
• Empowers: Games provide a safe space for players to see the long term consequences of their current actions and hence support them with the information needed for smart decision making. The project will leverage this "crystal ball effect" of games so that young girls can take a sneak peek into their future and get inspired by the potential of their STEM journey
• Build basic digital literacy through game play. 

Summary of ToC:

• Inputs: 
  • Needs Assessment
  • Game development
• Outputs: 
  • Downloads
• Outcomes:
  • Enhanced STEM and digital literacy skills measured through in-game knowledge checks
• Impact: 
  • Enhanced labor force participation

10k through existing GRID games

In one year: learning game downloads: 2,000 in one pilot country

In five years: learning game downloads: 10,000 across 5 different countries

The potential outreach for learning games is immense. Think Pokemon Go for building STEM skills among women; a game that had youth around the world chasing a shared goal. These games have the potential to mobilize women and girls on a large scale and have them playing together to learn STEM skills. 

As an organisation, we currently reach more than 15000 through our games. GRID is able to inspire people around a wide-range of social issues by harnessing the capacity of smartphones for behavior change.  We are now at a critical stage in our growth and expect to grow in three key directions: 

1. Creating more games that cover a wide spectrum of social change issues.

2. Create games with real-life linkages to information and action. We want to create partnerships to link game rewards to real life actions and information. 

3. Building evidence base around effectiveness of games. 

These strategies will allow us to not only build better games but also reach people who need them the most!

We foresee the following barriers:

Concerns around inclusion: There are concerns around the reach of mobile games since there are areas with smartphone penetration. While we fully acknowledge this concern and encourage hybrid (digital + face to face) approaches of raising awareness in this case, we do know that smartphone penetration will continue to rise and it will be a lost opportunity to not act until there is 100% coverage. 

Conversion of apps to new countries: We are committed to scaling up our game to new regions. With expansion comes risks associated with investments in research, development, and testing of the games. We will proceed cautiously, but continuously learning from our experiences.

In order to ensure inclusive international access and sustainable impact, GRID games are developed to be compatible with low-end Android phones and do not require internet connectivity to run. The games are also developed at one-fifth the cost of comparable commercial games and are available for free downloads, hence providing a long-term scalable solution for meaningful behavior change. Once the game is developed, it can be scaled up across different regions and adapted to different contexts in a cost effective manner. 

GRID is a social impact gaming studio that tackles global problems with a global team. With a core team of 7 members and an extended team of 5 others, our group of 12 is diverse in gender, ethnicities and experience. More than 65% of our team is female (8 women, 4 in core team and 4 in extended team), we are spread across 4 different countries (USA, Pakistan, Australia and Greece) and we come from different professional backgrounds including graphic designers and software development professionals with extensive experience in app development, international development practitioners and marketing experts.

At GRID, we aim to leverage the universal language of video games to inspire social change. Games are popular across borders and age groups & therefore present a unique platform to reach the masses in a fun & engaging manner. Once the game is developed, it can be scaled up across different regions and adapted to different contexts in a cost effective manner. Previous GRID games have been introduced in 5 different languages across 15 different countries. 

In order to ensure inclusive international access and sustainable impact, GRID games are developed to be compatible with low-end Android phones and do not require internet connectivity to run. The games are also developed at one-fifth the cost of comparable commercial games and are available for free downloads, hence providing a long-term scaleable solution for meaningful behavior change.

We have several partnerships focused on funding, content development and implementation of our games.Key partners include: 

PAMS: Pak Alliance for Math and Science: Commitment to partner on mainstreaming games for STEM learning if funding is available. 

Georgetown University Institute of Reproductive Health (IRH): Content and implementation partners for Nari Paila, a game that raises awareness on reproductive health. The game was funded by IRH as part of a USAID project. 

George Mason University: Development of "SurrEndo" - a game that build empathy for Endometriosis patients. The partnership with GMU was aimed at funding and evaluating this game through the Public Health school. 

UNICEF Pakistan: With UNICEF Pakistan, we have an MoU around our menstrual health game MoHiM. MoHiM is being integrated into UNICEF’s activities to promote positive hygiene practices around MHM in Pakistan.

American Pakistani Foundation: Our COVID19 awareness game CoronaCombat was translated into Urdu through a grant provided by American Pakistani Foundation. 

FLOC DC: GRID has an on-going partnership with FLOC DC where FLOC students are involved in the development of GRID’s game StereoWiped, a game that aims to wipe racial, gender and cultural stereotypes to promote tolerance and diversity.

Value Proposition: Making behavior change interactive, scalable and fun through digital games, on a global scale. 

Key GRID activities:

• Serious games development, with a focus on behavior change among the bottom billion
• Thought leadership in the serious games space 

Customers & Beneficiaries:

GRID's beneficiaries are often people around the world that are aspiring for positive behavior change, while our customers are social impact organizations and donors who are implementing programs to support behavior change in social sectors. E.g: Our game Nari Paila's consumers/beneficiaries are young adolescents in Nepal while our customer was Georgetown University's Institute for Reproductive Health who had an on-going reproductive health awareness project in Nepal. 

Revenue Generation:

• Fee for development of games
• grant funding, 
• innovation competitions, 
• potentially in-app purchases and advertisements (to be explored in the future)

GRID will employ three strategies to expand financial growth:

(i) Continue partnerships with organisations working in the social sectors to fundraise and ensure GRID games reach the bottom billion. 

(iii) Partnerships with private sector: GRID games are tackling behavior change among the bottom billion and hence creating a niche market for the private sector. For instance, through our menstrual health game MoHiM, we are not only raising awareness and mainstreaming the conversation around menstruation but also tapping a new niche of customers for feminine care products. Through private sector partnerships, we will pursue a model where the game can be used to boost sales of pads using real-life game mechanics. As the player progresses along the game, she will be able to gather game rewards that can be traded for discount coupons on the sales of Always pads. Conversely, codes found on products (pads and soaps) can be used to "unlock" different game features.  

(iii) Explore revenue generation options through game features such as in-app purchases, advertisements and donation buttons. 

As a female-owned tech start-up, collaboration is critical to our growth. 

1. Validation: Being recognized as one of the Solvers for Solve's 2020 Global Challenges provides us with the validation that is critical when we are forging new partnerships. The visibility and prestige attached to the Award will benefit us in our next stage of growth. Our key means for growth is through collaborations with partners. We identify organizations that are working on the same issues and are interested in using our games to enhance the impact of their programs. We then explore opportunities to either have them directly fund game development or co-apply for grants that align with our joint priorities. Being a Solver will allow us to forge new partnerships. 

2. Opportunity to collaborate with other game-changers: Given that we are creating games that enhance the work of organizations in our focus areas, we see collaboration opportunities with most fellow Solvers. In particular, we would like partnerships that enable us to embed with real-life linkages to information and action in our games. 

3. The Solve prize will allow us to develop our math games. We are able to develop games in a phased-in manner and therefore align them with the availability of resources. We will define the scope of the game based on the funding available through Solve and external partners. 

We are currently looking for collaborators who can help us in the following ways:

• Developing game content to focus on STEM and digital literacy skills
• Translating and localizing the game into other regional languages to scale its reach
• Incorporating linkages to real-life resources 
• We are interested in partnering with researchers who can help evaluate the impact of the game as well as grassroots organizations that can enhance our outreach. 

If we were to receive the Andan Prize for Innovation, we would utilize that funding to create a dedicated module of our learning games focused on the needs of female refugees and how they can leverage remote work opportunities.

The solution is directly aligned with the priorities of the Innovation for Women Prize since it encourages STEM learning among young girls. 

Our solution encourages math learning through games among female students.

Given the interactive, iterative, and inspiring nature, games appeal to the human psychology in a way most other communication tools don't and their impact on our brains far transcends the boundaries of the virtual world. At GRID, we aim to create games that are not just a tool for entertainment but have the ability to inspire and influence people in a positive way.

The GRID team created a math learning game, Gumbers, for grade 3 Gambian students, mapping all curriculum objectives into the game design. The game simulates an alien invasion on math in the country of The Gambia and student players have to save different math topics such as fractions, algebra, division and geometry in different levels.
Through this experience we found that Gumbers motivated students to learn math, and that game-based learning can be leveraged to get students interested in the subject matter. One of the key lessons learnt was that students are more encouraged to play the games if they can relate to the storyline and characters.