Advances in Immersive Virtual Worlds for Science Education Otto Borchert and the members of the WWWIC research group

WWWIC World Wide Web Instructional Committee Group of faculty, staff, and students dedicated to the creation of educational software for teaching the sciences Have produced software for a wide variety of students in a broad range of disciplines (Anthropology, Biology, Geology, Economics and Cultural Awareness)

Basic Tenets Most WWWIC projects involve the creation of an environment for science education. Each project follows an array of basic tenets that guide their design and implementation: Multiplayer – Students are able to collaborate and compete Role-based – Students assume a particular role (Ex: a cell biologist attempting to determine what is wrong with a cell’s ETC)

Basic Tenets (2) Goal Oriented – Students are lead through a progression of goals, going from least difficult to more challenging Learn-by-doing/Immersive – Students are immersed into a scientific discipline where they learn the jargon and terms of that discipline. Ex: They learn by actually performing tasks an anthropologist would do. Game-like – Students are more likely to continue doing something they like

Basic Tenets (3) Spatially oriented/exploratory – Most scientific disciplines require work to be done in a very spatial manner, our worlds provide a wide variety of environments for students to explore Highly interactive – Students are able to interact with many components in the game. When students are in control, they can control their own fate, and determine what they do.

Projects Geology Explorer Virtual Cell Like-A-Fishhook/Fort Berthold Village Dollar Bay Digital Archive Network for Anthropology Native Dancer

Geology Explorer Game for teaching Geology concepts Advances: Client Development 3D Client Development Interactive Interview System Comic Book New CD release

Client Development Swing Conversion JTeakMOO Interpretive Mapping

3D Client Development A new 3D client is being created for the Geology Explorer The first steps have been completed, including loading a world and beginning of interactions

Interactive Interview System To determine effectiveness, students are given a real life scenario and they are asked to write questions that they would need to ask, and how they would assess the scenario based on information received (Ex: Find a heavy chunk of shiny stuff in Canada, do you bring it back?) Before, students had to guess what the answers to their questions were Subjective Learner Assessment Support Technology (SLATE) Allows students to ask questions, and based on context, they can get an answer to their questions.

Comic Book/New CD release During the fall of 2002, CDs with the Geology Explorer client included were distributed to an introductory Geology class along with a comic book, describing the adventures of the initial crew to explore Planet Oit.

Virtual Cell Introduction Advances Players explore a virtual cell, performing identification and experimentation to learn cellular biology concepts Advances Module Development Tutoring Advances More experimentation

Module Development The Electron Transport Chain (ETC) module underwent a major revision. Put components into place to create an ETC Place hydrogen ion pump to see how ATP is created See what happens when different substrates are applied to the ETC Repair a damaged ETC

Tutoring Advances Tutoring was taken and modified from the Geology Explorer for use in the Virtual Cell. Most modules now have tutoring information.

Like-A-Fishook/Fort Berthold Newer addition to WWWIC family Creating the LAF/FB area as accurately as possible for anthropological exploration. Earth lodges, many artifacts (like pottery, books, clothing, etc) has been modeled in Alias/Wavefront’s Maya Software

Dollar Bay Economic simulation (players run a small retail business) Case Based tutoring (the only WWWIC project to have full case library) Ex: If a person sets a price too high, a tutor notices and tells them consumers won’t buy anything. For more information, see Jessica Mack’s presentation tomorrow

DANA Digital Archive Network for Anthropology Advances New web site / name Improved interface Advanced searching 2 and 3D model viewer New content, collaborators Participation in NSF Digital Library program

Background DANA is a distributed server-client network that connects remote database and multimedia archive systems from around the globe Provides Internet access to a wide variety of anthropological and cultural heritage resources for students, faculty, and interested members of the community.

New web site and name Now called DANA-WH “The Digital Archive Network for Anthropology and World Heritage” http://www.dana-wh.net This should attract more collaborators especially those associated with cultural heritage.

Improved Interface New 2D viewer New 3D viewer Advanced searching Up to 6 views of an object New 3D viewer Measurement Record screenshots Advanced searching Location, Site, Material, Artifact information – stored in XML

Additions to the Archive Many new artifacts have been added to the archive, including: Samoan stone and shell adzes Native American and Euro-American artifacts from Like-A-Fishhook and Fort Berthold Pottery profiles from India Archaic projectile point archive A selection of Paleolithic materials

Participation in NSF DL DANA is now a part of the National Science Foundation’s National SMETE (Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology for Education) Digital Library (NSDL) program http://nsdl.org

Native Dancer Newest member of WWWIC Intervention tool for type 2 diabetes among Native American populations Players exercise during the game by performing contemporary Native American powwow dances. Development of 3D modeling and animations

Animation development Initially brought professional dancers in for motion capture sessions. More sessions are planned to use a more sophisticated optical motion capture system.

Conclusion WWWIC projects have amassed a wide number of changes over the past two years and will continue to make strides towards more effectively teaching students the sciences. http://wwwic.ndsu.edu