STIMULATE (Science Training Immersive Modules for University Learning Around Teacher Education)

跨学科（99）STIMULATE项目（围绕教师教育的大学学习的科学培训沉浸式模块）正在使用下一代Web技术（Web 2.0）创建一个三维游戏应用程序，提供学习材料和策略，以使初始许可的科学教师参与真实的世界课堂问题。这些模块使教师沉浸在只有通过基于文本的案例研究才能交付的场景中。该项目的智力价值是基于越来越多的研究，重点是正规教育和快速新兴的游戏技术的学习潜力，包括多用户虚拟环境（Dede，2000; NMC，2007）和在STEM学习中使用隐喻和类比思维（Jenkins，2007）。此外，该项目是建立在几个当前的NSF项目DRL-0525115，DRL-0455819和DUE-0602801。该项目的一个研究组成部分是研究在虚拟世界中发生的新兴形式的游戏互动，以确定如何有效地吸引学习者，以加深他们对科学教学法的理解。该项目更广泛的影响在于为职前教师提供早期（虚拟）课堂体验的潜力，这些体验可以与他们随后的现场学生教学体验相结合。最终，该项目希望这些模块也能在教师专业发展环境中得到使用。

Interdisciplinary (99) The STIMULATE project (Science Training Immersive Modules for University Learning Around Teacher Education) is using next generation Web technologies (Web 2.0) to create a three-dimensional gaming application that provides learning materials and strategies to engage initial licensure science teachers in real world classroom issues. The modules immerse the teacher in scenarios once deliverable only through text-based case studies. The intellectual merit of the project is grounded in a growing body of research focusing on formal education and the learning potential of rapidly emerging gaming technologies, including Multi-User Virtual Environments (Dede, 2000; NMC, 2007) and the use of metaphorical and analogical thinking in STEM learning (Jenkins, 2007). In addition, the project is building on several current NSF projects DRL-0525115, DRL-0455819, and DUE-0602801. A research component of the project is examining emerging forms of game play interaction taking place in virtual worlds to determine how to effectively engage learners in order to deepen their understandings of science pedagogy. The broader impacts of the project lie in the potential to provide pre-service teachers with early (virtual) classroom experiences that can work in combination with their subsequent live student teaching experiences. Ultimately the project expects the modules to find use in teacher professional development settings as well.