Exploring Creativity and Scientific Inquiry Through the Metaverse: Our Journey in the Student Building Challenge

 

Among those at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference was Marcel Mosswood. She came back from her hiatus from the Newser to report on one of the events there, in which she guided three groups of students on three different projects. So what did they accomplish?

 

Read Marcel's article in People.

 

This Saturday at The Science Circle

 

Saturday April 27

    ~*~

    

    At 10 AM PST   

    How Can We Best Support Highly Intelligent Children/Students In Our Education System

    Organized by Chantal Jager

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/highly-intelligent-students/

    The Science Circle (72,129,30)

      

    ~*~

 

    

    NOTE: Non-members required to register once

    IM Jes Cobalt or Nymf Hathaway

╚══════════════════════════════ The Science Circle (72,129,30) ═╝

 

Announcement: This Saturday at The Science Circle - "Recent Developments at Chemistry World"

 

"Recent Developments at Chemistry World"

Saturday December 12, 

10 AM to 11 AM SL time

Chemistry World was established as a joint venture between Texas A&M University and the Florida Institute of Technology by Dr. K (Dr. Wendy Keeney-Kennicutt) and Winkelmann Teichmann (Dr. Kurt Winkelman) as part of NSF-funded research to examine the effectiveness of virtual worlds in the teaching of chemistry content. They worked with Xandi Mars and Random Cole, SL designers who are based in Texas and who work extensively with Texas A&M.  The results of the study were published in the Journal of Chemical Education. The result is an asset to the chemistry education community in Second Life which supports a realistic teaching environment which includes a laboratory, a classroom, offices to meet with TAs/faculty, and space to “hang out”. In addition there is an area for practicing camera skills, and a series of platforms which host two laboratory experiments which include an ideal gas law activity and a precipitation titration activity.

Amidst the SARS-COVID-2 pandemic in late Spring 2020, Dr. Shaw assumed management of the region.  The idea was to use its facilities to supplement the lab activities for a freshman chemistry for engineers course in Fall 2020. In spring 2021, it will be used to supplement an advanced Bioinorganic chemistry class. This tour will highlight the facilities built as part of the original study, will show the current builds of 3D bioinorganic models, and will show the current state of the Solid-State Models activity developed since April 2020. The logistics of implementing these SL activities will be described.

 Organizers: Dr. Mike Shaw and Dustin Pumford

 For more information, Click Here.

Announcement: This Saturday at The Science Circle - "Virtual Worlds for University Students"

 

"Virtual Worlds for University Students: Some Thoughts and Experiences"
Saturday December 5
10 AM to 11 AM SL time

Virtual Worlds such as SL have a great potential as an educational platform, and there is an extensive literature on the subject.  Likewise, they can offer social and psychological benefits, which can be very important, especially in the times of a social distancing.  Much of this is due to the subjective sense of presence, including the avatar self-identification.

Our immediate motivation to re-introduce VWs as a viable online venue for the Caltech students (the undergraduates in particular, especially the incoming class) to socialize, interact, network, collaborate, and learn collectively until the pandemic is no longer limiting such interactions in the physical space.  At the moment, the students in this cohort (roughly 18 to 22 years old) depend on the traditional social media for such interactions. Later on, we plan to introduce educational activities such as the lectures, office hours, etc.  We thus created Virtech, a Caltech sim in SL, and I will describe the process that led to this choice. The initial response from the students was mostly enthusiastic, but mixed, and their feedback was very valuable, as we continue to develop Virtech.

This presentation will take place on Virtech sim, followed by a guided tour and exploration.

George Djorgovski (SL: Curious George)    

For more information, Click Here.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtech/128/128/2

Antiochia: A Sim and a Scholarship Trust

Last week, the Antiochia sim officially opened. By itself, the sim's design alone makes it an attractive place to visit with it's Greco-Roman-Byzantine builds. But the sim itself is backed by a real-life nonprofit group which aims to educate students from the Middle East in Canada. Second Life Newser was invited to visit the sim, where we got a chance to interview the man behind it and the group, Alex Olteanu.

Read more in Places. 

Antiochia’s Opening Festivities Schedule

The Antiochia sim, mentioned earlier this week, is opening tomorrow, Sunday January 11. So here is the schedule of the events, running from 10 AM to 10PM SL time.

Morning: Nymphaeum Plaza and Info Center

10 - 11 am: Sandia Beaumont, Classical piano
11 - 11:30 am: An AST Student's Story: Georges Kabalan
11:30 am  - 12 pm: Inaugural Remarks: Quaestor Hax & Team
12 - 1 pm: Maximillion Kleene, Folk / pop

Afternoon: AST Square in Acropolis Fortress

1 -2 pm: Inaugural AST Lecture: David Orban: Infrastructures and Superstructures: The

interactive components of our lives
2 - 3 pm: Joaquin Gustav, Spanish guitar
3 -5 pm: Discussion panel: A decade of real governance in a virtual space. Speakers: Gwyneth

Llewelyn, Stephen Xootfly

Evening: Forum Valentis

5 - 7 pm: DJ Wally: Country Mix
7 - 8 pm: Komuso Tokugawa: Rock
8 - 9 pm: Gweeb: Blues
9 -10 pm: Joaquin Gustav: Latin dances


http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ANTIOCHIA/138/247/31

Press Release: Grand Opening of the Ancient Byzantine City of Antiochia This Sunday

We are very happy to invite you to the opening festivities of the Antiochia sim – home of the Antiochia Community of Citizens (or, in its Greek form, "Agora Polis Antiochia").

Antiochia is the virtual platform for a number of organizations and individuals whose main aim is to extend the boundaries of information, communication, and education across both virtual and real words. It aims to become a Knowledge Community spanning Real and SecondLife, by focusing on the key values of Education, Citizenship, Creativity, and Diversity.

Antiochia’s main sponsor is the Antiochia Scholarships Trust, a Canadian non-profit organization helping students from the Greater Middle East to realize their dream of pursuing their university studies in Canada. For more information on AST, please visit its website at: http://home.antiochiatrust.org .  Antiochia’s Chief Architect is SecondLife’s Alexia Carnell, owner of the Time Machine Design Studio and Store and its Landscaper is SL’s Butterfli Summers. The Terraforming and some of the buildings were done by Bagheera Kristan.

The sim itself is creatively modeled after the ancient city of Antiochia on the Orontes (today in Southern Turkey), a multicultural, tolerant and creative city with Phoenician roots, Greek origins, then Roman and Byzantine high points. We have tried to reflect this cultural diversity in our buildings, attractions, and the 44 Information Points you will find throughout the sim. A good starting point is Antiochia’s Info Center, located in the Nymphaeum Plaza, with the following slurl:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ANTIOCHIA/138/247/31

The Opening Festivities will last the entire day of Sunday, January 11, 2015, from 10 am slt to 10 pm slt, so people from all time zones can attend one or more events at times convenient for them. You will find a detailed list of all events and their venues' Landmarks below.

We have planned for you a variety of informative, educational, and entertaining events. One of AST’s Middle East students will briefly talk about his dream of studying in Canada; a European expert in leading-edge network science will give the Inaugural AST Lecture; and we will have a panel discussion with questions and answers from the public on Ten Years of Virtual Governance in SecondLife.

The musical events will cover everything from rock, pop, folk, blues, and country to Spanish guitar and even a much-anticipated classical piano concert that will open our entire day, at 10 am SL time.

Please feel free to visit the sim and to join our group, Agora Polis Antiochia, so as to stay informed of our future activities and events. You can contact Antiochia’s Project Manager, Alex Olteanu, either in-world by IM-ing his avatar, AlexOlteanu Unplugged, or by e-mail, at alex@antiochiatrust.org; or the Project Administrator, by IM-ing his SL avatar, Bromo Ivory.

We hope that you are just as excited as we are by the events we have planned for you and that you will be able to attend with your friends sometime during this day.

We look forward to seeing you and your friends on Sunday, January 11, 2015, for Antiochia's Opening Festivities.

The Antiochia Team

TV News Shows Medical Students Using Second Life

Some days ago on ABC News on TV, there was a story about Second Life. Nova Southeastern University, has been using the virtual world as a training tool for it's medical students. The story came from a local station by Kristi Kruger, whom had reported on what the students were doing.

At the university's College of Osteopathic Medicine, students can use virtual patients to practice diagnostic skills, as well as communication with them. "The key to great health care is building a relationship, a partnership if you will, between the patient and physician, and -- the more comfortable and the better listener he is, the more relaxed, and the better that communication is -- the better the health care outcome is going to be," spoke Marti Echols, one of the university's teachers. The students can go to the virtual clinic "anytime, anywhere" to practice.

The university has also gotten a million dollar grant to use Second Life to help amputees (news story). Sandra Winker, a researcher and assistant professor at Nova's College of Health Care Services, was awarded the three year grant "in funding from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality to pursue her study. The project costs will be 100% financed with federal funds."

Amputees from all over the world will be able to join "a support group with no time or space limitations." As avatars can be made more or less into whatever appearance one wants, they will be able to choose whether or not their avatar is also missing a limb, or not. By going about Second Life, such as in the jet ski activities the news program showed, the virtual world will help them "regain their balance and mobility."

"Patients will be able to enter our virtual island and simulate what it is like to once again use their missing limbs," Winkler explained in the online article, "This has the possibility to make life better for so many amputees, and all they will need is an Internet connection."

Ms. Kruger had gotten her own avatar to help in reporting the story, calling the Second Life activities "A fun way to do some very serious learning and growing."

Nova Southeastern University has it's main campus located in Fort Lauderdale Florida. One can learn more about the school at: http://www.nova.edu/ .

Source: Local10.com , ABC News Charleston

Youtube: The Kansas To Cairo Project Part #3

I found this on Second Life's Facebook page. An example of students from two societies getting together through Second Life. In the course of the Youtube, the foriegn group travels to the United States. With recent inconveniences for airplane travelers, such as the full body scanners and the body searches, such get-togethers will probably be less likely to happen in the future. So in a way, virtual worlds have become more important for communication.