PLAYFUL JOURNEY LAB

This summer we welcomed our first cohort of Summer Journeyers! From graduate students to experienced teachers, the group brought a diverse set of backgrounds and interests to the lab. They worked collaboratively on projects directly connected to the lab’s work, and on their own independent projects.

We have positions open for playful people who are passionate about creative learning and assessment! Join our team to help shape our research directions, do impactful work, and have fun! Opportunities are for an Assessment Scientist, Learning Sciences Researcher, Project Manager, and Research Consultant.

What does teachers’ assessment literacy mean in the era of big data and AI? How can we create data tools that help educators become fluent and informed users of data and AI-driven suggestions? In the Playful Journey Lab, we’ll tackle those questions and much more — thanks to a new grant award from the NSF Cyberlearning program.

With almost no experience in designing complex games, Prasanth set out on the journey of building a game that would simulate a water conflict and allow many students in a classroom to take on various roles, negotiate and understand the nuances of governance and policy making.

Over this summer at the MIT Playful Journey Lab, Plub spent her time researching the topic of “girls in STEM” and designing a camp to be implemented in Bangkok, Thailand.

As a Summer Journeyer, Kate experimented with different methods of capturing audio data during collaborative problem solving activities among middle school students. Her goal was to figure out a way to capture what each student said while they worked with a small group of their peers to think through a complex problem.