Digital Earth Explorations Project (DEEP)™
U.S. Department of Education – Institute of Educational Sciences
SBIR Grant Award to One Planet Education Network
Title: Digital Earth Explorations Project (DEEP)™
3D Virtual National Parks - Virtual Mesa Verde National Park and World Heritage Site, Virtual Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and World Heritage Site, Virtual Northwest Hawaiian Islands National Marine Sanctuary.
1. Principal: Newman, George Newman
2. Grant Program: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
3. Year: 2008
4. Grantee: OPEN (One Planet Education Network)
5. Goal: Development and Classroom Testing
6. Description:
OPEN’s SBIR funding allows the company to develop its own branded Virtual National Parks online 3D-based learning programs, and then research the potential of these branded game-based curriculums which are designed to foster interdisciplinary knowledge in the life and earth sciences, social studies, language arts, and mathematics.
Leveraging an existing platform acquired through exclusive license agreement from Research Technology Corporation (RTC) Indiana University, and implementing a design approach developed through previous funding, OPEN is developing an exciting and meaningful series of 3D learning applications that represent significant real-world locations and curriculum-based adventures.
By connecting that content to real-world applications, locations, and professional organizations, we intend to instill an appreciation for the value of interdisciplinary educational content for advancing meaningful goals of middle school students – educational content that is relevant and meaningful as well as rigorous, i.e., applied standards-based learning.
Anticipated Results for Phase I and II
This grant will allow us to (1) refine an existing world, (2) develop two new worlds, (3) create professional development supports for teachers, (4) conduct feasibility studies on this work. The research outcomes will involve comparing pre- and post-learning gains as well as the intervention classes as compared to control classrooms.
The New OPEN Online 3D Worlds
Our new learning programs will include game-based representations of Mesa Verde National Park and World Heritage Site, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and World Heritage Site, and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Marine Sanctuary (with the support of the Cousteau Ocean Futures Society). Each adventure or mission is designed to connect to specific academic standards and disciplinary content, embedded in a game-based scenario and compelling narrative that will help young students understand and value cultural heritage and our natural environment.
These virtual worlds establish contested spaces and embedded storylines in which the player has to accomplish a particular series of tasks and activities. Students will also collaborate with peers (in class and virtually with others) to convey knowledge and experience, to interpret and interrogate the storyline, and to test hypotheses and propose workable solutions for problematic situations they encounter within these virtual worlds.
For example, students investigating a virtual representation of a portion of Volcanoes National Park will use their emerging understanding of scientific processes to investigate possible health issues related to exposure to varying levels of volcanic sulfur emissions, or to determine the potential energy output for the Big Island from geothermal sources at the Park. Students will also learn financial management principles when evaluating future Park-based activities, or emergency preparedness planning to protect visitors and Park research staff. They will also learn the history and ongoing contributions of the native culture to Volcanoes Park and our 50th state.
In addition to the math, science, and management principles, students will learn persuasive writing techniques, as they will be required to formulate and then write convincing letters to political authorities and influential stakeholders to justify their positions. In such curriculum activities we will develop some game-based fictional scenarios that are intended to be more instructionally useful than the exact real-world environment upon which they are based.
While the experience will be designed so that students will be immersed in a role-playing online game and storyline that will be akin to historical fiction, we will work closely with our strategic partners Mesa Verde National Park, the Cousteau Ocean Futures Society, and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and others to ensure the real-world authenticity of our game-based, interactive narratives and curriculum.
Our 3D World View and Window to the Future
The Environment
Global warming, greenhouse gas emissions, glacial melting, deforestation, human-induced wildlife extinction, climate change, GMOs, nuclear proliferation and waste, cosmic mass extinction threats, differing cultural viewpoints and histories. Today’s children are not so naive, nor can they afford to be. Their inheritance is an increasingly unhealthy earth with conflicting populations vying for limited resources. And all too soon it will be their responsibility to deal with these serious issues and realities.
A goal of our work is to develop learning tools and educational programs to help students research, understand, and to make recommendations to solve environmental, scientific, mathematical, economic, political, and social problems, and to understand the relevance of our shared history and differing cultural viewpoints. Beginning with the DEEP: Virtual Natural Park Series, these programs encourage problem-solving and do it in such a way that students actually enjoy the experience because of the similarity to technology already familiar and exciting to them: videogames.
 We are using 3D multiuser technology to create virtual environments, where students can not only travel to virtual places and engage in educational activities, but they become immersed in a storyline about the particular environment in question. Just as videogames allow the player to become immersed in an onscreen role – race car driver, sports player, action figure - The Virtual Park Series allows students to “explore” a virtual world, observe the beautiful natural scenery, and communicate with characters, such as Park Rangers and other authorities.
Students role-play as professional researchers and experience the work conditions and challenges that these professionals face every day. Because of the ability of the technology to modify conditions based on in-game activity, students are able to problem-solve and witness the outcomes and implications of their decisions along the way. Students collaborate and then reflect on the learning experience gaining unique “first-hand” insight into a problem, and have the opportunity to explore a variety of solutions.
By considering the problems facing national parks today, such as diminishing funds, disappearing wildlife, natural disasters, and human intrusion, students grapple with these challenges on a manageable level, while investigating causes and possible solutions.
Culture
Another term with which our children will become familiar through our work is “cultural diversity.” The human tendency to evaluate others based on individual beliefs and ways of doing things can lead to intolerance, prejudice, violence, and worse if left unchecked. In a 21st century of increasing globalization (or maybe more accurately “glocalization” – thank you Professor Mendes), the need to understand and work with people from other cultures will be a key to survival. How do we help children learn about other cultures, those cultures’ heritages, and even their own heritage?
The Virtual Park Series connects social studies, geography and the environmental sciences with a unique program feature which allows students to travel back in time. While they navigate through the parks our students can virtually stand where ancient people lived and thrived hundreds of years ago, and “see” these people as they engage in the everyday activities of their lives. They can even assist in these tasks and help solve the kinds of problems early humans had with their environment.
How did they use their natural resources? What happened when they overused them? What kind of impact did overcrowding have on their lives? What happened to their civilization? What would you have done differently? Would your solution work today? Addressing these issues requires students to leverage scientific information as they learn about the resources necessary to support the community, the environment, and historical changes in the environment and the inhabitants of the land.
In this way our students begin to truly appreciate the consequences of the actions the students chose to take throughout the learning adventure. By becoming part of the historical narrative, students will also gain a deeper or more intimate understanding of past cultures that inhabited these Park lands.
It is our hope that they will learn why it is important to continue to preserve and further investigate the history, and to learn the lessons from that history and how it has relevance to our time and for the future. For instance, how did generations of Native Americans in the southwest contend with and adapt to 25 successive years of drought? How were they able to manage their resources with a burgeoning population that was larger than the population in that area today? What can past civilizations teach us about our own utilization of water, the land and other natural resources on which we depend?
The Future
We are just scratching the surface of what these types of technology programs can bring to the classroom, and we believe that the potential for future projects is unlimited. One example of a particularly exciting and valuable future journey is the exploration of world energy. There is no doubt energy will continue to be a major necessity to the world and a major concern to its big-brained inhabitants.
Our children can be world travelers today taking virtual field trips to places they could never go in real life and do things they could never otherwise do. Think of being able to visit and study a wind farm on Puget Sound, measure and analyze the varying output of a solar panel on the school roof and its impact on energy use for the school. Students could role play and learn to operate a large hydroelectric dam, or nuclear power plant, or consult as a forecaster on future energy supply for a large electric utility.
The value of these types of education and learning environments for our once and future world citizens cannot be understated.
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