Transcript vital.cs.ohio.edu

What’s up with the Dead Fish?
The Virtual Boat for Environmental Education (VBEE): Teaching Sustainability Through Virtual Education
Grant Number SU836012
Ohio University
Nathan Andre, John Bentz, Andrew Copley, Yanhui Fang, Sertac Ozercan, Justin Wiseman, Xin Ye, Qing Zhu
An image of the virtual boat from Fish Kill – Level 1
www.ohio.edu/books
The goal for the
Phase I portion of the
VBEE project was to
create a virtual
learning environment
and to establish the
framework for
developing inquirybased learning
modules.
Objectives
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Conduct research on water pollution and their sources along the Ohio
River.
Create a virtual boat, along with its virtual environment modeled on
the Ohio River at Marietta, Ohio.
Equip the virtual boat with functionalities such as navigation and
water sample testing.
Demonstrate and test the VBEE to evaluate its efficacy.
Beta testing was done to provide direction for the civil engineering team to identify key curriculum
attributes that needed to be implemented into the game and design issues for the computer science
students.
• Improve game-play scenario
• Improve usability • Fix bugs
• Ohio Department of Education (ODE) Content Standards and Benchmarks
Earth Sciences
Benchmark C: Explain that humans are an integral part of the Earth's system and the
choices humans make today impact natural systems in the future.
Scientific Ways of Knowing
Benchmark C: Explain how societal issues and considerations affect the progress of
science and technology.
Scientific Inquiry
Benchmark A: Make appropriate choices when designing and participating in scientific
investigations by using cognitive and manipulative skills when collecting data and
formulating conclusions from the data.
The people that this
project will benefit
includes:
• Educators
• Students
• Future
generations
Increasing
awareness and
encouraging
students to pursue
STEM related
careers will provide
sustainable decision
makers.
The VBEE was
developed for the
economically depressed
region of southeastern
Ohio. Since the
software is available for
free, VBEE can be
played anywhere.
Using the existing pollution sources that have been
constructed into the VBEE, phase II will continue the
improvement of the existing levels. Phase II will also be
devoted to adding additional levels and data collecting
capabilities on the virtual boat. These levels will be
designed using the Ohio Department of Education
Standards and Indicators. We also plan on improving the
ipad version by including additional features that utilize the
tilt sensor and touch screen that makes the ipad unique and
more engaging than the webplayer version.
As the game improves, the game will be used in more
class rooms for further beta testing. This will maximize the
educational value of the game as well as the fun.
A large number of dead fish have
been found in the Ohio River.
Bob the Scientist, who works for
the United States EPA, has
asked you to help him find the
source of the fish kill.
100%
90%
The class that was used for beta testing
was an integrated chemistry and physics
class which has a total of eight students and
focuses on environmental sciences. This
class has several students which have an
individualized education program (IEP) and
lack interest in pursuing a STEM career or
degree.
• Showed interest in biological and
environmental sciences
• Asked engaging questions pertaining
to STEM related careers
80%
70%
Score
The Virtual Boat for Environmental Education (VBEE) is
an educational tool developed by students of civil
engineering and computer science at Ohio University
for environmental education. The video game design,
integrated with environmental lesson plans, is highly
sustainable based on the data taken during the biannual on-boat sampling trips to the Ohio River from
Marietta to Gallipolis, Ohio by the participating fellows in
the NSF GK-12 project, “The Boat of Knowledge in the
Science Classroom (BooKS).” It is a simulated Boat of
Knowledge that will support a large range of lesson
plans for teachers to introduce topics such as
calculating water quality index, introducing GPS to
pinpoint study areas, and study diffusion rates of a
chemical spill. The project aims to place the students
into a real-life scenario of data collection and
manipulation to determine how local river systems have
been impacted by pollution.
Students from the economically
depressed region of southeastern
Ohio are given the opportunity to take
a trip on the Boat of Knowledge along
the Ohio River. The main focus of
these trips are to teach the students
about water quality and pollution
issues and instilling a sense of
research into their curriculum.
Unfortunately, the boat is not large
An image of the physical boat
enough for all of the students to go on
the boat trips. The VBEE was developed to allow every student an opportunity to
experience the boat trips in a virtual, 3-D rendering of the Ohio River.
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
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Question Number
Pre-test Results
Post-test Results
References:
1. Ohio Department of Education (ODE) Content Standards and Benchmarks. http://www.ode.state.oh.us/GD/Templates/Pages/ODE/ODEPrimary.aspx?page=2&TopicRelationID=1696
2. Map shapefiles were obtained from ESRI.
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Top: Map of Testing Locations
Bottom: Bar Graph with Testing
Results
Left: Actual map of BooKS
testing locations
These potential pollution sources are common to southeast
Ohio and have historically contributed to the pollution of the
Ohio River and its tributaries.
References:
3. Ohio University logo obtained from http://woub.org/sites/ default/files/styles/large/public/OHIO_logo.text_.png
4. Athens High School Logo obtained from http://www.wix.com/athensbooks/aboutathenshigh