WaterSIMmersive: Designing and assessing a mixed-reality water sustainability educational game and museum exhibit for communities in the Desert Southwest

在美国西南部过去1,200年来最严重的大洪水中，该地区的居民必须了解他们的水来自哪里，如何使用，以及存在哪些保护选择。亚利桑那州立大学（ASU）的研究人员与史密森尼博物馆（MoMS），亚利桑那科学中心以及亚利桑那州周围的八个部落和农村博物馆合作，将通过创建WaterSIMmersion，一个混合现实（MR）教育游戏和伴随的博物馆展览，帮助教育和授权生活在沙漠西南部的社区关于水的可持续性问题。通过让参观者参与全身互动、社会学习机会和实时自适应反馈，MR教育游戏有可能加深对STEM概念的理解，这是静态博物馆展示所无法做到的。该游戏通过了解城市、农村和部落社区成员的故事、知识和经验，挑战博物馆游客分配水资源，以满足他们在科罗拉多河沿岸遇到的各种利益相关者的需求。依靠这些虚拟人物提供的数据可视化和视角，参观者将开始了解他们自己社区和整个地区供水系统供需压力的复杂性。周围的展板将展示当地的水故事，讨论有关水资源保护的战略和神话，并加强在教育游戏中学到的教训。该展览将与当地农村和部落社区的家庭共同设计，虽然教育游戏的目标年龄组是中学，但展览将吸引所有年龄段的游客。通过开发和研究WaterSIMmersion的过程，团队将尝试回答以下研究问题：（1）如何调整复杂的科学建模系统，以吸引和教育公众了解对社区福祉至关重要的STEM问题？(2)如何设计教育游戏界面，以提供实时、数据驱动的形成性反馈，使博物馆参观者能够理解并参与其中？(3)博物馆的虚拟化人类和具体干预如何以持久的方式影响自然资源管理和保护的知识，行为和态度？游戏和展览的开发将遵循“交易设计模型”（劳尔，2020年），这表明，当专家的科学知识与当地居民的经验和部落社区的传统生态知识等同时，最有利于对自然资源挑战的决策。来自一系列农村和部落社区的亚利桑那州立大学研究生将采访当地居民，了解他们用水的经历。这些“水的故事”将被纳入教育游戏和展览。该团队将进行观察和访谈研究，以测试参与度，并部署准实验研究，以帮助他们了解游客对水可持续性的知识，态度和行为在玩教育游戏的人与那些观察或不玩的人之间可能会有所不同。WaterSIMersion将首先由亚利桑那州科学中心主办，然后前往亚利桑那州的八个部落和农村博物馆，最终在研究期间吸引数千名游客。该项目将赋予受气候不确定性和干旱影响不成比例的社区权力，并为其他博物馆提供一个模式，与重视生活经验的学习者共同设计，并利用这些经验促进社区行动。这个整合研究与实践项目由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划支持以下项目：（a）促进研究和实践，考虑非正式STEM学习在STEM中的公平和归属感方面的作用;（B）促进STEM中的个人和教育成功;（c）推动公众参与科学发现;（d）培养对STEM职业的兴趣;（e）为有效的非正式STEM学习建立和加强理论和经验基础;（f）提高社区活力;和/或（g）加强科学传播和公众参与和理解STEM和STEM过程。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得的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来提供支持。

Amidst the most severe megadrought over the last 1,200 years in the U.S. Southwest, it is essential that residents of the region understand where their water comes from, how it is used, and what options for conservation exist. Researchers at Arizona State University (ASU), in partnership with the Smithsonian Museum on Main Street (MoMS), the Arizona Science Center, and eight tribal and rural museum sites around Arizona, will help educate and empower communities living in the Desert Southwest on water sustainability issues through the creation of WaterSIMmersion, a mixed reality (MR) educational game and accompanying museum exhibit. By engaging visitors in whole-body interactions, social learning opportunities, and real-time, adaptive feedback, the MR educational game has the potential to deepen understanding of STEM concepts in ways that more static museum displays are unable to. Informed by the stories, knowledge, and experiences of underserved urban, rural, and tribal community members, the game will challenge museum visitors to allocate water to fulfill the needs of various stakeholders they encounter along the Colorado River. Relying on data visualizations and perspectives provided by these virtual characters, visitors will begin to understand the complexities of water system supply and demand pressures in their own communities and across the region. Surrounding exhibit panels will showcase local water stories, discuss strategies and myths around water conservation, and reinforce lessons learned in the educational game. The exhibit will be co-designed with families from regional rural and tribal communities, and while the target age group for the educational game is middle school, the exhibit will appeal to visitors of all ages.Through the process of developing and then studying WaterSIMmersion, the team will attempt to answer the following research questions: (1) How can complex scientific modeling systems be adapted to engage and educate the public about STEM issues of critical importance to the well-being of their communities? (2) How can educational game interfaces be designed to provide real-time, data-driven formative feedback that is comprehensible and engaging to a range of museum visitors? (3) How can virtualized human and embodied interventions at museums affect knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes about natural resource management and conservation in enduring ways? Game and exhibit development will follow a "transactional design model" (Lauer, 2020), which suggests that decision-making about consequential natural resource challenges is best facilitated when the scientific knowledge of experts is posited as equal with the experiences of local residents and the traditional ecological knowledge of tribal communities. ASU graduate students from a range of rural and tribal communities will interview fellow residents about their experiences with water. These "water stories" will then be integrated into the educational game and exhibit. The team will conduct observation and interview research to test engagement and deploy quasi-experimental studies to help them understand how visitors' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors toward water sustainability might vary between those who play the educational game, compared to those who observe or do not play. WaterSIMersion will first be hosted by the Arizona Science Center and then travel to eight tribal and rural museums across Arizona, ultimately reaching thousands of visitors during the study period. The project will both empower communities disproportionately affected by climate uncertainty and drought and offer a model for other museums to co-design with and for learners that value their lived experiences and capitalize on these experiences to promote community action.This Integrating Research and Practice project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports projects that: (a) contribute to research and practice that considers informal STEM learning's role in equity and belonging in STEM; (b) promote personal and educational success in STEM; (c) advance public engagement in scientific discovery; (d) foster interest in STEM careers; (e) create and enhance the theoretical and empirical foundations for effective informal STEM learning; (f) improve community vibrancy; and/or (g) enhance science communication and the public's engagement in and understanding of STEM and STEM processes.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.