Warren Coalition brings Galaxia program to Warren County’s Middle Schools

Warren County and Skyline Middle School students are captivated by alien-looking creatures who find themselves in common quandaries. This isn’t an invasion. It’s LST Galaxia, an online interactive game designed to help middle school students develop skills to cope with bullying, cyberbullying, substance use, and violence.

With a grant from Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth, the Warren Coalition purchased LST Galaxia licenses for Warren County Middle School and Skyline Middle School. By the time the new year rang in, program administrator Meredith Bloomfield was working on implementing it for grades seven and eight. It was up and engaging students at both schools by March 15th.

Kenzie Bloomfield, an eighth-grade student at Warren County Middle School, engages with one of the Galaxia modules from the comfort of her home. Photo by Meredith Bloomfield

Named an EdTech “Cool Tool” award finalist for 2020, LST Galaxia is designed to reinforce the skills taught in the Botvin LifeSkills Training Middle School program, which has been administered in Warren County schools for the past nine years. The game provides more than ten hours of instructional content across all three game levels. For the County’s first year, Meredith has chosen to start all students out on level one. The self-paced program sends her reports to monitor the students’ progress.

“I believe it is a great addition,” Meredith commented. “It’s interactive and will likely appeal to students more than the workbook we used before, because they’re used to clicking and interacting online. It is an evidence-based curriculum in a game format—and it’s fun.”
In addition to helping students learn how to handle the challenges of the middle school years, the program promotes mental health and positive youth development through social-emotional learning. Topics such as making decisions, self-image and self-improvement, and resolving conflicts are difficult for middle school students to master; Galaxia gives them a safe space to practice these skills as it presents them with various scenarios, and they choose how to respond. And when it comes to making tough choices, such as how to respond to bullying, some of the answers are easier to figure out, just like real life.

The programmers built in some other familiar gaming aspects as well. Students can choose an avatar and accessorize it, which they accomplish with enthusiasm. The appeal is broadened through various settings, from a space lab and a dorm to a performing arts center and a cafè, in a “boarding school” setting where students have to choose a major in the “supernatural arts.”

To encourage the students to complete level one before the April 30th deadline, they are entered into a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card for completing modules. Each week for four weeks, two students per grade per school will receive the gift cards.

Meredith has gotten great positive feedback from the students already, with some of them even writing her thank-you notes. But she is quick to note that she could not have implemented Galaxia alone. “A special thanks goes out to a few people who made it possible and helped with the roll out,” said Meredith. “Amy Lelito, the Technology Integration Coach at Warren County Middle School, was instrumental in implementing this program. Skyline Middle School’s Technology Integration Coach, Lois Evans, was also incredibly helpful. And the principals at both schools, Amy Gubler at Warren County and Robert Johnston at Skyline, were a key part of it all as well.”