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

这个项目将调查使用虚拟现实技术来创建虚拟现场体验，用于介绍地球科学课程。虽然实地经验是地球科学教育的一个重要方面，但由于访问，后勤和财政限制，为许多本科生提供物理世界经验的机会很少。因此，地球科学教师必须开发新的教学和学习机会，密切接近的信息，元素和环境的学生会发现在一个物理，在人的实地研究。通过该项目开发的虚拟体验类型虽然不同于其物理推论，但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，使地球科学教育工作者能够获得互动的、情境化的教学材料，使学习者能够进入探索和发现的空间。 虚拟现实领域经验的发展也将为不同的学生观众创造一条途径，让他们接触地球科学，特别是那些来自代表性不足的群体，资源有限的机构和传统上不直接参与地球科学的专业。 增加这些群体获得教育机会的机会将有助于发展参与、多样化和懂地球科学的人口，这是在复杂和不断变化的世界中满足社会需求所必需的。该项目将开发一个虚拟现实的大峡谷实地考察，将在不同的教育环境中向广大观众开放。 通过经验，学生将开发核心地球科学概念，因为他们发现和评估的证据，这将有助于他们拼凑该地区的地质历史。在虚拟体验中，学生将运用他们的岩石和矿物属性的知识，建立他们对地球过程之间的空间和时间关系的理解，学习如何在岩石中记录这些关系，并最终将他们的观察结果合成为一个连贯的地质故事，他们将以通俗的方式封装为峡谷的虚拟小册子。该项目还将为地球科学教育工作者开发一个虚拟现实工具箱，以促进今后开展更多的虚拟实地活动。 该项目将利用虚拟现实领域的新创新，例如，Oculus Rift技术，为地球科学教育工作者提供了一种手段，让每个学生都能获得第一人称的虚拟现场体验。 虚拟实地体验将被设计为强调地球科学学习的关键方面（即，时间思维，空间思维，地球系统和实地学习），并整合地球科学素养倡议提出的地球科学中的“大思想”。 该项目将开发的具体学习活动以现有的地球科学教育，STEM教育和基于游戏的学习文献为基础，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在课堂上的参与度和概念保留率。

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.