IUSE: EHR: Enabling field experiences in introductory geoscience classes through the use of virtual reality

IUSE：EHR：通过使用虚拟现实在地球科学入门课程中提供现场体验

• 批准号: 1504619
• 负责人: Kelly Lazar
• 金额: $ 22.74万
• 依托单位: Clemson University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-01 至 2019-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1504619&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: IUSE; EHR; Enabling; field; experiences

This project will investigate the use of virtual reality technologies to create virtual field experiences for use in introductory geosciences classes. Although field experiences are an important aspect of geoscience education, there are few opportunities to provide physical world experiences to many undergraduate students due to access, logistical, and financial constraints. Thus, geoscience instructors must develop novel teaching and learning opportunities that closely approximate the information, elements, and environment students would find on a physical, in-person field study. The types of virtual experiences developed through this project, while different from their physical corollaries, will give learners the chance to engage with learning content and activities through multi-modal interactions in the virtual environment. The use of virtualization tools will create opportunities that give geoscience educators access to interactive, contextualized teaching materials, and learners access to a space for exploration and discovery. The development of virtual reality field experiences will also create a pathway for a diverse audience of students to encounter the earth sciences, particularly those from underrepresented groups, resource-limited institutions, and majors traditionally not directly involved in the earth sciences. Enhancing access to educational opportunities for these groups will aid in developing the engaged, diverse and earth-science literate population that is needed to address societal needs in a complex and changing world.The project will develop a virtual reality field-trip of the Grand Canyon that will be accessible to a wide audience in diverse educational settings. Through the experience, students will develop core geoscience concepts as they find and evaluate evidence that will help them piece together the geologic history of the region. In the virtual experience, students will apply their knowledge of rock and mineral properties, build their understanding of spatial and temporal relationships between Earth processes, learn how these relationships are recorded in the rock, and ultimately synthesize their observations into a coherent geologic story that they will encapsulate in lay terms as a virtual brochure for the Canyon. The project will also develop a virtual reality toolbox for earth science educators that will facilitate the future development of additional virtual field activities. The project will utilize new innovations in the field of virtual reality, e.g., Oculus Rift technology, to provide geoscience educators the means to give every student a first-person virtual field experience. The virtual field experiences will be designed to emphasize key aspects of geoscience learning (i.e., temporal thinking, spatial thinking, earth systems, and field learning) and integrate the 'Big Ideas' in geoscience proposed by the Earth Science Literacy Initiative. The specific learning activities that will be developed in the project are strongly grounded in the existing geoscience education, STEM education, and game-based learning literature and will utilize built-in learning analytics for improved assessment of student learning. By addressing both the affective and cognitive routes to learning, this approach holds promise to increase student engagement and concept retention in the classroom.

该项目将调查使用虚拟现实技术来创建用于入门地球科学课程的虚拟字段体验。尽管现场经验是地球科学教育的重要方面，但由于获得，后勤和财务限制，很少有机会为许多本科生提供物理世界体验。因此，地球科学讲师必须开发新颖的教学机会，这些教学机会紧密近似于学生在身体，面对面的现场研究中发现的信息，要素和环境。通过该项目开发的虚拟体验的类型，而与其物理上的合金不同，将使学习者有机会通过虚拟环境中的多模式互动参与学习内容和活动。虚拟化工具的使用将创造机会，使地球科学教育者获得互动，上下文化的教材，并学习者进入探索和发现的空间。 虚拟现实领域体验的发展还将为各种各样的学生遇到地球科学，尤其是那些来自代表性不足的群体，资源有限的机构以及传统上不直接参与地球科学的专业的途径。 增强这些群体获得教育机会的机会将有助于开发在复杂而不断变化的世界中满足社会需求所需的参与，多样化和地球科学识字人群。该项目将在多样化的教育环境中开发出大峡谷的虚拟现实现实田间 - 可供广泛的观众进入。 通过这项经验，学生将在发现和评估证据时发展核心地球科学概念，以帮助他们融合该地区的地质历史。在虚拟的经验中，学生将运用他们对岩石和矿物质的知识，建立对地球过程之间的空间和时间关系的理解，了解如何将这些关系记录在岩石中，并最终将观察结果综合为连贯的地质故事，以将他们作为一个虚拟的小册子封装为峡谷。该项目还将为地球科学教育者开发虚拟现实工具箱，以促进未来的其他虚拟现场活动的发展。 该项目将利用虚拟现实领域的新创新，例如Oculus Rift技术，为地球科学教育者提供为每个学生提供第一人称虚拟领域体验的手段。 虚拟领域的体验将旨在强调地球科学学习的关键方面（即时间思维，空间思维，地球系统和现场学习），并将地球科学素养计划提出的地球科学中的“大思想”整合在一起。 项目将在项目中开发的特定学习活动在现有的地球科学教育，STEM教育和基于游戏的学习文献中有很强的基础，并将利用内置的学习分析来改进对学生学习的评估。通过解决学习的情感和认知途径，这种方法有望提高学生参与度和课堂上的概念保留。