Changing Students’ Attitudes Towards Science and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Related Careers with a Virtual World Based Science Curriculum

Selen Turkay

Wed., June 10, 5:00–7:00, Great Hall (4th floor, Central)

The purposes of this case study were to examine if a curriculum based in a game-like virtual world can change students’ attitudes toward science and science related careers, and to identify challenges during the development and implementation of this curriculum. Games and game-like virtual environments are becoming very popular tools among K-12 institutions with the premise of engaging students with subject matters in classrooms, thus positively changing attitudes of students towards the targeted subject. It is crucial to explore ways to develop and implement curriculua which effectively harness these environments by using their strengths.

The Science through Second Life (StSL) curriculum is an innovative project that aims to create an engaging learning environment for high school students using the virtual world Second Life and other applications in the larger Internet ecology. StSL was developed, prototyped, and implemented by Global Kids Inc., a non-profit organization based in New York.

The StSL project was implemented during Spring 2008 semester. StSL classes took place five days a week in a ninth grade Global Science class in New York. As students progressed through a 19-week curriculum, they learned a variety of digital literacy skills related to virtual worlds, blogging, and online media production. The project aimed to build students’ confidence in their ability to “do science” by leveraging the constructivist and collaborative possibilities of virtual worlds.

Students’ attitudes are one of the key factors in learning science, and the learning process is important in improving the attitudes of students (Tekbıyık & İpek, 2007). The development of positive attitudes toward science can motivate student interest in science and science-related careers (George, 2006).

In his analysis of science education, Lemke (1990) concludes that, “[s]cience is presented as being a difficult subject. When students fail to master it, they are encouraged to believe it is their own fault: They are just not smart enough to be scientists” (p. 138). One of the goals of StSL project was to break this stigma.

Data was collected from 19 students (10 female and 9 male) during the semester through classroom observations, pre- and post-surveys, and semi-structured interviews.

Analysis of the collected data revealed that more students considered having a STEM related career after participating in the StSL curriculum. Many students reported having a better understanding of how scientists think and work in their surveys. A major component of the curriculum was collaborative scientific activities conducted in the Second Life environment. Analysis shows that these activities supported student understanding of how scientific investigations are conducted. In the post-survey, 14 of the students reported that their interest in science became greater during the spring semester.

The limitation of a 40-minute class time for activities, and distractions of students by in-world factors are among the challenges we learned about. This presentation will explain how the curriculum was implemented, what the challenges were, what students did during the sessions, examples of student work, narratives showing how students felt about the curriculum, and more results on the topic.

References

Coffman, T., & Klinger, M. B. (2007). Utilizing virtual worlds in education: The implications for practice. International Journal of Social Sciences, 2(1).

Dede, C. (2000). Emerging influences of information technology on school curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 32(2), 281–303.

Dede, C., Ketelhut, D., & Ruess, K. (2004, April). Designing for motivation and usability in a museum-based multi-user virtual environment. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.

George, R. (2006). A cross-domain analysis of change in students’ attitudes toward science and attitudes about the utility of science. International Journal of Science Education, 28(6), 571–589.

Lemke, J. (1990). Talking science: Language, learning, and values. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing.

Tekbıyık, A. & İpek, C. (2007). Sınıf öğretmeni adaylarının Fen Bilimlerine yönelik tutumları ve mantıksal düşünme becerileri. Yüzüncü Yıl Üniversitesi Elektronik Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, Cilt IV-Sayı I.