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

虚拟现实（VR）通过让学习者参与真实但无法获得的学习体验，有望扩大STEM的参与。沉浸在真实的学习环境中，加上社交存在和学习者代理，VR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很有前途的工具。虽然自闭症患者的表现方式存在很大差异，但VR可以解决与自闭症相关的一组常见需求是感官处理。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，同时结合互补的通用学习设计（UDL）原则，促进STEM学习的广泛参与。作为加强非正式环境中学习的总体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）项目资助了用于各种环境的创新研究、方法和资源。该项目将以VR模拟原型“欧罗巴Prime任务”为基础，将学习者运送到木星卫星欧罗巴的空间站进行探索，欧罗巴是未来发现外星生命的有力候选者，也是人类目前无法亲自体验的地方。原型模拟将扩展为创建一个完整的、身临其境的基于STEM的体验，使经常在公共场所遇到STEM学习认知、社会和情感障碍的学习者，特别是自闭症学习者，能够充分参与并从这种STEM学习体验中受益。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大专院校的学生共同设计谜题和用户界面，以帮助患有自闭症和其他学习差异的学习者。完整的VR stem学习模拟将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虚拟现实的非正式STEM学习的知识，以及虚拟现实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交叉领域的研究。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，以确保VR体验的设计能够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，扩大对非正式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对青少年和成年人进行，这两个博物馆为自闭症患者和普通公众提供服务。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。除了在会议上分享外，研究结果还将提交给研究人员的同行评审期刊，以及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感兴趣的团体的适当出版物。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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.