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

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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.