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

这个项目将研究使用虚拟现实技术来创建虚拟现场体验，用于地球科学入门课程。尽管实地体验是地球科学教育的一个重要方面，但由于准入、后勤和经济方面的限制，为许多本科生提供物理世界体验的机会很少。因此，地球科学教师必须开发新颖的教学和学习机会，这些机会与学生在实地实地研究中发现的信息、元素和环境非常接近。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交互参与学习内容和活动。虚拟化工具的使用将创造机会，使地球科学教育者能够访问交互式、情境化的教学材料，并使学习者能够访问探索和发现的空间。虚拟现实实地体验的发展也将为不同的学生群体创造一条接触地球科学的途径，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的学生。增加这些群体获得教育机会的机会将有助于培养参与、多样化和具有地球科学知识的人口，这是在一个复杂和不断变化的世界中解决社会需求所需要的。该项目将开发一个大峡谷的虚拟现实实地考察，将在不同的教育环境中向广大观众开放。通过这次经历，学生们将在发现和评估证据的过程中发展核心的地球科学概念，这些证据将帮助他们拼凑出该地区的地质历史。在虚拟体验中，学生将运用他们的岩石和矿物属性知识，建立他们对地球过程之间的时空关系的理解，了解这些关系如何记录在岩石中，并最终将他们的观察结果综合成一个连贯的地质故事，他们将用外行术语封装为峡谷的虚拟小册子。该项目还将为地球科学教育者开发一个虚拟现实工具箱，以促进未来更多虚拟实地活动的发展。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给每个学生第一人称虚拟实地体验的手段。虚拟实地体验的设计将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“大理念”。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。通过解决情感和认知的学习途径，这种方法有望提高学生在课堂上的参与度和概念记忆。

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.