Teon Edwards

Professional Title
co-PI and Lead Designer
Organization/Institution
TERC, Inc.
About Me (Bio)
Teon Edwards is a co-founder of and a lead designer for the Educational Gaming Environments group (EdGE) at TERC, a not-for-profit math and science education company in Cambridge Massachusetts. She helped design, develop, run, and research the science-based games Martian Boneyards and Canaries in a Coalmine, and she's currently working on Leveling Up (designing and researching a series games that will be validated against high-school science learning and assessments), Arcadia: The Next Generation (supporting and researching gaming environment-based science inquiry), and FUN: Finland-US Network (collaborating with Finnish game researchers). She has a background in astrophysics, mathematics, and education, and for over fifteen years, she has developed numerous science curricula, experiences, and games for both formal and informal settings.
Personal Website
http://edgeatterc.com/edge/
Keywords
Gaming/Virtual Environments

Arcadia: The Next Generation—Transforming STEM Learning Through Transmedia Games

TERC, Inc.
09/01/2011

This project will study the design features of an experimental gaming environment called Arcadia: The Next Generation. Researchers working with a group of formal and informal educators to study the connections between scientific inquiry in Arcadia and STEM learning. The project provides a dynamic and evolving place where gamers, educators, parents, and citizen scientists can come together to share, rate, and build knowledge through a variety of fun science inquiry games.

FUN: A Finland US Network for Engagement and STEM Learning in Games

TERC, Inc.
10/01/2012

As part of a SAVI, researchers from the U.S. and from Finland will collaborate on investigating the relationships between engagement and learning in STEM transmedia games. The project involves two intensive, 5 day workshops to identify new measurement instruments to be integrated into each other's research and development work. The major research question is to what degree learners in the two cultures respond similarly or differently to the STEM learning games.

Leveling Up: Supporting and Measuring High School STEM Knowledge Building in Social Digital Games

TERC, Inc.
07/01/2011

This project designs, develops and tests a digital gaming environment for high school students that fosters and measures science learning within alternate reality games about saving Earth's ecosystems. Players work together to solve scientific challenges using a broad range of tools including a centralized web-based gaming site and social networking tools, along with handheld smart-phones, and an avatar-based massively multiplayer online environment. The game requires players to contribute to a scientific knowledge building community.

Taking Games to School: Exploratory Study to Support Game-based Teaching and Learning In High-School Science Classes

TERC, Inc.
07/15/2014

This project is building a set of software tools, including a tool for annotating screen recordings of activities in games, a teacher data dashboard for information about students' in-game learning, and tools to help teachers customize activities in games to better align with curricular standards. The project will find out whether these new tools can enhance teaching and/or learning. 

Zoombinis: The Full Development Implementation Research Study of a Computational Thinking Game for Upper Elementary and Middle School Learners

TERC, Inc.
07/15/2015

This project leverages an existing game by embedding tools for studying patterns of students' decision-making and problem solving in the environment. This allows researchers to understand how students learn about computational thinking within a tool that bridges informal and formal learning settings to engage a wide variety of students. The project will also develop tools and resources for classroom teachers.