TY - JOUR
T1 - Relating narrative, inquiry, and inscriptions
T2 - Supporting consequential play
AU - Barab, Sasha A.
AU - Sadler, Troy D.
AU - Heiselt, Conan
AU - Hickey, Daniel
AU - Zuiker, Steven
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported in part by a CAREER Grant from the National Science Foundation, and directly by the National Science Foundation Grants #9980081 and #0092831.
PY - 2007/2
Y1 - 2007/2
N2 - In this paper we describe our research using a multi-user virtual environment, Quest Atlantis, to embed fourth grade students in an aquatic habitat simulation. Specifically targeted towards engaging students in a rich inquiry investigation, we layered a socio-scientific narrative and an interactive rule set into a multi-user virtual environment gaming engine to establish a virtual world through which students learned about science inquiry, water quality concepts, and the challenges in balancing scientific and socio-economic factors. Overall, students were clearly engaged, participated in rich scientific discourse, submitted quality work, and learned science content. Further, through participation in this narrative, students developed a rich perceptual, conceptual, and ethical understanding of science. This study suggests that multi-user virtual worlds can be effectively leveraged to support academic content learning.
AB - In this paper we describe our research using a multi-user virtual environment, Quest Atlantis, to embed fourth grade students in an aquatic habitat simulation. Specifically targeted towards engaging students in a rich inquiry investigation, we layered a socio-scientific narrative and an interactive rule set into a multi-user virtual environment gaming engine to establish a virtual world through which students learned about science inquiry, water quality concepts, and the challenges in balancing scientific and socio-economic factors. Overall, students were clearly engaged, participated in rich scientific discourse, submitted quality work, and learned science content. Further, through participation in this narrative, students developed a rich perceptual, conceptual, and ethical understanding of science. This study suggests that multi-user virtual worlds can be effectively leveraged to support academic content learning.
KW - Consequential play
KW - Educational games
KW - Inscriptions
KW - Simulations
KW - Socio-scientific inquiry
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U2 - 10.1007/s10956-006-9033-3
DO - 10.1007/s10956-006-9033-3
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:34247191590
SN - 1059-0145
VL - 16
SP - 59
EP - 82
JO - Journal of Science Education and Technology
JF - Journal of Science Education and Technology
IS - 1
ER -