ED006-11
Gamifying virtual exploration of the past 350 million years of vertebrate evolution
Monday, 7 December 2020: 19:31
Virtual
Geoffrey Bruce, Arizona State University, ETX Center, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Tempe, AZ, United States, Chris Mead, Arizona State University, Center for Education Through Exploration, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Tempe, AZ, United States, Wendy Taylor, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States and Ariel D Anbar, Arizona State University, School of Earth and Space Exploration and School of Molecular Sciences, Tempe, AZ, United States
Abstract:
A challenge in teaching introductory paleontology and evolution is helping learners to think of ancient life as it existed in real ecosystems, interacting with other animals from its own time. This is particularly important because of how these interactions ultimately drive adaptation and survival. We hypothesize that immersive, interactive virtual field trips (iVFT) offer a solution to this problem. The “Surviving Extinction” iVFT significantly expands what has been done before in this educational medium. It makes use of game-like features, such as collectable items, multiple pathways, and options that are not open until certain thresholds have been met. It is also expansive in scope and provides a great deal of autonomy to the learner with respect to the type of content that is explored and the order that content is accessed. This presentation will discuss its design and educational goals as well as provide evaluation data to support its effectiveness.
The content of “Surviving Extinction” includes the history of vertebrates, phylogenetic relationships, shared traits, environmental suitability, ecological niches, species interactions, and mass extinctions. The learning experience motivates learning about these conventional topics by bringing learners to rich and scientifically accurate virtual recreations of habitats from 14 points in geologic history and ten modern-day field research sites. By offering this visually and scientifically interesting background to the core content, we believe that the learning experience will be more immediately effective, more memorable long-term, and will inspire learner curiosity—encouraging them to ask broad and interesting questions about paleontology and evolution. It is available to the public at https://vft.asu.edu/survive/.
In testing with incoming high school students (n = 28), we found statistically significant learning gains on questions about the timing of reptilian/mammalian divergence and about distinctive mammalian traits. Participants also reported that the experience was very interesting and a very effective learning experience (each 6.3 on a seven point scale). In future work, we hope to compare learning outcomes from this experience to conventional instruction in evolution or paleontology.
