Relevant initiatives

Virtual science – Virtual worlds for the sciences

Michelina Occhioni

2012

European

No

Teaching Methodology, Video, On-line Game, Didactical resource

Chemistry, Maths, Physics, Biology, Technology, ICT, Science

Italian, English

Students

Virtual Science is born from author’s desire to share her own teaching experience with other teachers in sciences and in particular the application of new technologies in teaching, virtual education and e-learning in general.
For a long time the author was interested in information technology and a few years ago she discovered virtual worlds particularly Opensim.
Many schools and universities are taking advantage of this great opportunity.
In the field of education, particularly in science and technology, it is useful to simulate phenomena, to study the geometry of solids and rebuilding natural environments.
In fact, the modeling of scientific phenomena is important to understand them, considering that a fun and motivating environment is essential for learning.
The project is based on the building of a 3D virtual world by an open source multi-platform, multi-user 3D software called OpenSim for educational purposes.
Thanks to Opensim the author created Techland with the intention to promote the approach of studying science with curiosity. The main aim of the website is to stimulate students’ creativity and imagination whilst testing the perspective and the impact on teaching.
Techland is a group of a dozen thematic islands dedicated to maths, chemistry, biology and earth science . It is based on OpenSimulator and resides on a Linux server , owned and managed by myself. All data are stored in a MySQL database. Techland is configured to be accessed from the internet only by authorized teachers and students, and runs in a Standalone mode, as a private world, for security reasons, for the protection of underage students.
Generally we use imprudence or singularity to log into the world
Every island covers a specific subject or facility.
-Techland is the Welcome Area, where the initial information is found, and where students can reach the other islands by the teleport system. Here the ongoing projects are displayed.
-Bioland is dedicated to environmental and cellular biology.
-Earthland is the place where students learn earth science.
-Chemland concerns to the structure of matter and chemical reactions.
-Powerland is dedicated to renewable energies, particularly hydro, solar and wind energy
-Waterland focuses on water.
-Mathland is the city of math.
-Techstore and Tech Sandbox are service sims that support all activities.
The first is a big Store, where textures, small objects, avatar apparel accessories and scripts are found;
the second is a building area where students are free to enjoy with primitives, the basic geometric building shapes, and learn how to build.

The initiative presented in this website turns out to be very interesting, especially to whom desires to capture students attention and to increase the attraction of scientific subjects through virtual reality. The website offers “mondi virtuali” [virtual worlds] about biology (http://virtualscience.it/bioland.html), mathematics (http://virtualscience.it/mathland.html), chemistry (http://virtualscience.it/chemland.html) and earth science (http://virtualscience.it/earthland.html).
These sections contained thematic videos, that can be examples for introduction videos in classrooms, could also be an example for the methodology with the involvement of students in the production of new virtual worlds.

This website is really interesting. It deals with scientific subject through the use of ICT. The video and the animations help to understand complex concepts.
There are not relevant weaknesses. The didactic resources cover several scientific fields and teach that by studying you can reach a better understanding of the real life events.
This portal can be easily submitted to the pupils.

This website is a pleasant way to learn fundamental concepts for scientific subjects. The video simulations are very interesting.
Sometimes we need the teachers’ explanation because some topics are difficult to understand.