Abstract:

Despite efforts to encourage Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers in elementary and high schools, an ever-growing volume of research supports the impact of occupational knowledge, most notably through familiarity and social influences including family, friends, and instructors on student career choice. This is only reinforced by increased confidence and knowledge developed through application. Unfortunately many student populations are neither able to gain exposure to potential career paths via role models and networks nor opportunity for any application and development of relevant skills for potential STEM-based careers. The COVID-19 pandemic amplified these disparities around the world. In spite of this, a series of extracurricular and co-curricular online programs were developed to address this dilemma faced by socio-economically depressed communities. This paper presents the initiatives set by Canada’s largest architecture program in using a combination of synchronous and asynchronous content with highly interactive activities afforded by online gaming technologies, to ameliorate this emerging challenge. Articulating the project goals, program development, and coordination among educators, researchers, and industry professionals, this paper highlights methods other institutions may develop robust STEM-based programming that yields incredible gains for the community and future practice.

Keywords:

STEM, outreach, architecture, Minecraft, video games.