Abstract
Bullying is an all too common occurrence in our nation’s schools. Research underscores how all involved—
bullies, victims, and bystanders—are at elevated risk for negative outcomes in many aspects of a child’s social,
emotional, and academic life. Recent reviews of school-based programs demonstrate that social emotional
learning (SEL) is a critical ingredient in effective bullying prevention. Unfortunately, logistical barriers (e.g., time,
cost, need for trained staff) too often undermine schools’ abilities to implement traditional in-person programming
with all students. This SBIR Phase project aims to apply cutting-edge intelligent social tutoring game technology
to create a new, evidence-based serious game specifically designed to help late elementary students learn and
build the social emotional skills needed to navigate bullying situations and successfully transition to the middle
school social environment. The end result of our Phase I and Phase II efforts will be a rigorously tested serious
game specifically designed to prevent bullying and prepare students socially for the middle school transition
through a safe virtual environment where late elementary students can learn and practice essential SE skills for
identifying, managing, and avoiding a variety of bullying situations. In Phase I, we will accomplish three specific
aims. First, we will create a serious game prototype with input from 4th and 5th grade students, parents, and
educators to select the custom graphic design and storyworld and inform development of five social problem
solving scenes depicting various types of bullying situations (i.e., physical, verbal, relational, cyber, and
bystander). Second, we will conduct feasibility tests with 4th and 5th grade students and educators who will review
and evaluate the prototype. And, third, we will create a full Phase II development and testing plan based on our
Phase I findings. Our proposed serious game bullying prevention product will meet a significant market need as
the first rigorously tested serious game for bullying prevention to prepare students socially for the difficult
transition to middle school. Importantly, the proposed product will benefit from an established channel into the
school market as our commercialization partner, Personalized Learning Games, Inc., has committed to include
the proposed game in its product line, once fully developed and tested in Phase II.
