SBIR Phase II: Learning From Nature: Marine Educational Games With Big IDEAS (Innovative Differentiated Educational Assessments in Science)

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This SBIR Phase II project will develop an easy to use real-time formative assessment tool for educators that will be uniquely aligned to each student and deployed via a virtual reality learning game that uses venomous marine snails as a conduit for exploring scientific issues in nature. The USA is currently ranked 52nd in the world in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. This is detrimental intellectually and economically to the future of American society. Recent studies indicate it is not what is taught, but how it is taught that enhances student-learning abilities, particularly as it pertains to STEM. As a result, this project is driven by the research objectives to understand how children learn specific science content and why certain game elements are better suited to convey scientific material. The outcome of this project is a proprietary multi-tiered formative assessment tool that can measure real time student learning of novel STEM content obtained through a virtual reality learning game experience. This project will enable teachers to nimbly tailor future instruction with individualized student learning goals. Commercialization of the products created in this project will transform scientific learning and measurable engagement in educational games for social and economic benefit to meet the NSF?s mission of supporting education initiatives that improve the lives of U.S. Citizens, and generate income for tax revenue and jobs via the employment of software designers, educators and scientists.The proprietary technology developed in this SBIR Phase II will be a first-of-its-kind assessment dashboard that will link virtual reality and web-based learning environments with formative assessment to fuel instruction and deepen learning. This project will build proprietary assessment tools into online and virtual reality games which continuously engage users in the process of scientific inquiry and discovery using novel formative assessments customized to each player. The proprietary assessment dashboard allows teachers and players to measure their progress in real-time and identify opportunities to enhance their STEM learning. Using Unity as the platform, player actions and decisions will be met with tailored formative assessments and ongoing feedback throughout game play. This feedback helps teachers delineate where their students are along their learning progressions and fuels further instruction. The novel approach of this assessment dashboard transforms qualitative and quantitative learning and has the potential to significantly enhance student engagement and commitment to scientific inquiry to support emerging science changemakers. The research objective of the player/teacher dashboard is to align feedback on student learning during game play with dynamic quantitative and qualitative formative assessment that create a seamless demonstration of knowledge acquisition while providing teachers with multiple opportunities to engage learners in deeper and more meaningful levels of inquiry before, during, and after gameplay. The products generated from this project are aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the International Baccalaureate (IB) program to ensure the content is of the highest caliber and distribution is to a large global customer base. The anticipated results from exposing teachers and students to this project will be increased competencies in STEM, which will transform players into lifelong learners and enhance engagement in STEM fields and careers.