CONSTRUCTION EDUCATIONAL GAME FOR K-12

The future competitiveness of construction industry is dependent on K-12 students. However, unfavorable images of construction industry have negative influence on K-12 students' decision-making of their career. This negative image makes them not want to find out what actually happens in construction industry. Consequently, it is important to give K-12 students the opportunity to know what construction employees actually do in their job. Studies show that K-12 students who encounter the job early-on are more likely to choose it as their career. In this context, this paper proposes construction educational game in which it can serve as a medium for capturing K-12 students' interest in Construction Management (CM). Based on the literature reviews, challenges of construction educational game for K-12 students which are edutainment, hands-on experience and social interaction, are derived. To address these issues, conceptual model and scenario are designed. Based on designed scenario, prototype of Simulation based Construction Game in Virtual World (SCGVW) is developed in Second Life (SL) and applicability test to K-12 students are implemented. This paper concludes with a discussion of the lessons learned and the future development steps of the construction educational game for K-12 students.