Broadening Participation in Informal STEM Learning for Autistic Learners and Others through Virtual Reality

虚拟现实（VR）有望通过让学习者体验真实但无法获得的学习体验来扩大STEM的参与范围。沉浸在真实的学习者环境中，沿着社交存在和学习者代理，这是由VR实现的，有助于形成难忘的学习体验。VR正在成为自闭症儿童的一种有前途的工具。虽然自闭症患者的表现方式存在很大差异，但与自闭症相关的一组常见需求可以通过VR来解决，那就是感觉处理。该项目将研究和模拟如何使用VR来最大限度地减少自闭症学习者的障碍，同时还将补充通用学习设计（UDL）原则，以促进STEM学习的广泛参与。作为加强非正式环境中学习的整体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助创新研究，方法和资源，用于各种环境。这个项目将建立在一个原型虚拟现实模拟，使命到欧罗巴总理，运输学习者到空间站探索木星的卫星欧罗巴，一个强有力的候选人，为未来发现地外生命和位置没有人类目前可以亲自体验。原型模拟将被扩展，以创建一个完整的，沉浸式的STEM体验，这将使那些经常在公共空间遇到认知，社交和情感障碍的学习者，特别是自闭症学习者，能够充分参与并受益于这种STEM学习体验。模拟将包括各种STEM学习难题，通过真实有趣的问题解决任务解决科学，数学，工程和计算思维。该项目团队的学习设计师和研究人员将与一所专上学院的学生共同设计谜题和用户界面，供自闭症和其他学习差异的学习者使用。完整的VR STEM学习模拟将被广泛传播到博物馆和其他非正式教育项目，并分发到其他社区。项目研究旨在推进基于VR的非正式STEM学习的知识，以及VR对自闭症学习者的支持。 为了扩大所有人对STEM的参与，该项目汇集了STEM学习，认知和教育神经科学以及人类技术前沿的交叉研究。该模拟将为学习者提供代理，以调整STEM学习VR体验，以满足他们独特的感官处理，注意力和社交焦虑需求。该项目将采用参与式设计流程，确保VR体验旨在减少目前将自闭症和相关疾病的学习者排除在许多非正式学习机会之外的障碍，扩大非正式STEM学习的参与。设计研究，可用性和功效研究将在太平洋科学中心和波士顿科学博物馆与青少年和成年人一起进行，这些科学中心和博物馆为自闭症患者沿着公众提供服务。项目研究基于之前NSF资助的研究，并利用团队在STEM学习模拟，VR开发，认知心理学，通用设计和非正式科学教育方面的专业知识，以及最终用户目标受众，自闭症学习者的重要专业知识。除了在会议上分享研究成果外，研究成果还将提交给研究人员的同行评审期刊，并提交给VR开发者和传播者、博物馆项目、神经多样性社区和其他潜在利益相关方的适当出版物。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Virtual Reality (VR) shows promise to broaden participation in STEM by engaging learners in authentic but otherwise inaccessible learning experiences. The immersion in authentic learner environments, along with social presence and learner agency, that is enabled by VR helps form memorable learning experiences. VR is emerging as a promising tool for children with autism. While there is wide variation in the way people with autism present, one common set of needs associated with autism that can be addressed with VR is sensory processing. This project will research and model how VR can be used to minimize barriers for learners with autism, while also incorporating complementary universal designs for learning (UDL) principles to promote broad participation in STEM learning. As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of settings. This project will build on a prototype VR simulation, Mission to Europa Prime, that transports learners to a space station for exploration on Jupiter's moon Europa, a strong candidate for future discovery of extraterrestrial life and a location no human can currently experience in person. The prototype simulation will be expanded to create a full, immersive STEM-based experience that will enable learners who often encounter cognitive, social, and emotional barriers to STEM learning in public spaces, particularly learners with autism, to fully engage and benefit from this STEM-learning experience. The simulation will include a variety of STEM-learning puzzles, addressing science, mathematics, engineering, and computational thinking through authentic and interesting problem-solving tasks. The project team’s learning designers and researchers will co-design puzzles and user interfaces with students at a post-secondary institute for learners with autism and other learning differences. The full VR STEM-learning simulation will be broadly disseminated to museums and other informal education programs, and distributed to other communities.Project research is designed to advance knowledge about VR-based informal STEM learning and the affordances of VR to support learners with autism. To broaden STEM participation for all, the project brings together research at the intersection of STEM learning, cognitive and educational neuroscience, and the human-technology frontier. The simulation will be designed to provide agency for learners to adjust a STEM-learning VR experience for their unique sensory processing, attention, and social anxiety needs. The project will use a participatory design process will ensure the VR experience is designed to reduce barriers that currently exclude learners with autism and related conditions from many informal learning opportunities, broadening participation in informal STEM learning. Design research, usability, and efficacy studies will be conducted with teens and adults at the Pacific Science Center and Boston Museum of Science, which serve audiences with autism, along with the general public. Project research is grounded in prior NSF-funded research and leverages the team's expertise in STEM learning simulations, VR development, cognitive psychology, universal design, and informal science education, as well as the vital expertise of the end-user target audience, learners with autism. In addition to being shared at conferences, the research findings will be submitted for publication to peer-reviewed journals for researchers and to appropriate publications for VR developers and disseminators, museum programs, neurodiverse communities and other potentially interested parties.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.