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

2. 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)

3. 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)

4. 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

5. 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.

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

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

8. Client Development
Swing Conversion
JTeakMOO
Interpretive Mapping

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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

13. 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

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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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.

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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

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

25. 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.