Science in Second Life: Embodying Scientific Inquiry in a High School

• In Event: Affordances and Constraints of Virtual Worlds for Formal and Informal Learning

Abstract

The purpose of this presentation is to examine role of embodiment in changing students’ attitudes toward science and science related careers, and promoting engagement in a virtual world based science curriculum by providing examples from curriculum activities.
The Science through Second Life (StSL) curriculum is an innovative project that aims to create an engaging learning environment for high school students using the virtual world Second Life (SL) and other applications in the larger Internet ecology. The StSL curriculum was designed to harness the strengths of each media throughout the project and appropriate them to facilitate student learning in an embodied way with the strengths of situated learning (Lave & Wegner, 1991).
Data was collected from 19 students in a freshmen science class in a New York City public high school during a semester through classroom observations, mixed method pre-post surveys, and semi-structured interviews to determine students' engagement in the course, attitudes towards using technology in the course activities (e.g., “I enjoyed being a scientist for science activities in Second Life.”) and the difficulties students had throughout the semester as well as change in their attitudes towards science and science related careers (e.g., “I think being a scientist would be exciting.”). Another survey with open-ended questions gathered information about students’ science learning outcomes from the curriculum.
Students were given wireless laptop computers with all the necessary software installed for the curricular activities. Major science activities took place in SL and were strengthened with classroom discussions led by the teacher. Environment for each unit was installed in SL by content developers. Students engaged in several collaborative activities, oftentimes assuming the role of scientists. They shared ideas to complete inquiries in and out of SL.
Data analysis revealed that the curriculum affected students’ attitudes towards science and science related careers positively. It also provided students with digital tools and skills to build their confidence to pursue scientific and technological endeavors. The curriculum increased students’ digital literacy skills in specific areas such as collective intelligence, and provided them with an immersive learning environment where they could communicate and collaborate with their peers and instructors in various ways. Embodied, immersive, avatar-based cognitive support in SL was an engaging factor of the curriculum which resulted in increased interest in learning and doing science.
Limited class time, student’s low literacy skills and adaptability of the curriculum were some of the challenges encountered during the development and implementation of the curriculum. The length of this single case study was also relatively short. To accurately state the engaging effects of such curriculum, more studies are needed, ideally with different demographics. One has to be cautious that students’ engagement can be a result of the novelty of using a game-like virtual world for the first time in a class. The attitudes may change if students are to use this kind of curriculum for several classes. Nevertheless, students’ increased understanding of scientists’ work and positive change in attitudes hold promise. These will be discussed further in the session.

Author

• Selen Turkay, Harvard University