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About DigiBC's Play to Learn Program

STEM is everywhere, from businesses and organizations to the products that power our daily lives. That’s why it’s important to build the first fully STEM literate generation and encourage STEM career exploration at an early age. Play to Learn is an interactive program designed for exploring STEM careers for middle school students. The curriculum is built to empower learners with the knowledge they'll need to discover their career pathways. Industries and innovative STEM opportunities highlighted in Play to Learn include:
• Designing the Ultimate Prototype 

• Connecting the Home of the Future 

• Building the Perfect Playlist 

• Medical Machines 

• Data Champions 

• Game Development Studio
 

Over 600 students took Play to Learn as part of the DigiBC Program

Knowledge & Learning
Increasing Knowledge of STEM Careers

Play to Learn helps students understand how STEM skills translate into STEM careers. This skill translation begins with learning about foundational STEM skills like data analysis, the engineering design process, and concepts related to software development. DigiBC students’ assessment scores increased by 98% (from 40 to 79 out of 100). Nationally, assessment scores increased by an average of 80%.

Preparing for a STEM Future 

Building Interest in STEM Learning 

Play to Learn reinforces key STEM skills and mindsets while encouraging students to connect these skills with future careers. This real-world context shows students how to leverage what they are learning in their math and science classes today and over the rest of their academic career into a STEM career in the future.

Seeing Themselves in STEM

Reaching Students Who Do Not Identify as the ‘STEM Type’

Early adolescence is a critical time for STEM education. How students feel about STEM subjects at this age can dramatically impact future options and choices. Play to Learn aims to encourage all students even those who might not think a STEM career is them – to see themselves in a career utilizing STEM topics. After Play to Learn, students who initially said they were not interested in a STEM career begin to reconsider. These students saw careers that excited them, could imagine themselves in that career, and these students started thinking about next steps to pursue a STEM career.

Teacher Perspective

Building STEM Career Interest
 

Teachers agree that Play to Learn is effective at engaging their students and encouraging their interest in STEM. Based on feedback from 97 teachers who used Play to Learn during the 2020-2021 school year, two thirds of teachers say that Play to Learn presents STEM careers to students in a more engaging way than other programs. And an overwhelming majority of teachers (94%) agree that Play to Learn helps their students make critical connections between STEM concepts and future careers.
 

Based on Data from EVERFI Teacher Surveys conducted during the 2020-2021 school year.