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Pilot Project: Research on Serious Games for Geoscience Education, 2 years, $149,984,
National Science Foundation (Geo-Ed) No. GEO-0608082, Aug 2006 - Aug 2008; Dr. Brian M.
Slator, PI, Lisa M. Daniels, Bernhardt Saini-Eidukat, Donald P. Schwert, and Jeff Terpstra.
This project, as a 'Track 1 Pilot Project' of the Geoscience Education grant, would meet four goals:
- Design and implement 2 new modules to the Geology Explorer IVE which could be incorporated into
6-12 grade earth science, chemistry, and math classrooms.
- Design and implement standards-based curricula and assessments to supplement these new modules.
- Evaluate the effect of the new modules on students. ability to connect skills used in geoscience
to those used in other career opportunities and science disciplines.
- Evaluate students' attitudes of perceived relevance of math and science beyond high school.
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SBIR Phase I: An environmental geology game for discovery-oriented science and mathematics
education, 6 months, $150,000, National Science Foundation No. IIP-0945807, Jan 2010 -
Jun 2010, Otto Borchert, WoWiWe PI, Dr. Brian M. Slator, Dr. Donald P. Schwert, NDSU PI
Phase I: An Environmental Geology Game for Discovery-oriented Science and Mathematics Education.
Six months, $49,526, WoWiWe Instruction Co. via the National Science Foundation, IIP-0945807, January 2010 - June 2010,
Dr. Donald P. Schwert, PI.
This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project aims to solve a growing need
for environmental science education. We propose a six month project to develop a dynamic,
group-based, immersive virtual environment (IVE). The primary innovation of the project lies at
the intersection of three fruitful lines of research. First, IVEs show improved learning gains in
science classrooms (McClean, 2001). Second, group learning is increasingly important, both
from an employer's viewpoint (NACE, 2003) and an educator's viewpoint (Kagan, 1994;
Johnson and Johnson, 1991). Finally, the fast-paced, immediate nature of our society requires
individuals to respond quickly and effectively to dynamic events. The combination of these three
will lead to a new, and potentially more intrinsically motivating, method of teaching
environmental science.
A study will be performed to determine the efficacy of the approach in terms of both
learning outcomes and attitudinal measures, using high school students in a controlled laboratory
setting. The "degree of casual adoption" among high school students will be assessed through the
"landing site" developed for a related project.
At the conclusion of the project, the IVE will be a fully-contained experimentally
validated software package feasible for Phase II distribution to a number of markets.
Here's where we brag!
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