Imagine a Virtual Science Center (SciCentr) founded in a parallel dimension, built by and for the worldwide community of avatars, or virtual beings. A place where you can swing on a star or explore the atomic maze of a complex molecule. SciCentr will be a meeting place, a workplace, and a showcase for the power of the Internet as a medium for informal science education aimed toward teens and young adults.
Breaking Ground for a New World
SciCentr is being developed in Active Worlds (AW), using Wintel servers and browsers from Circle of Fire. The vast majority of Internet users can teleport effortlessly into this new dimension as avatars because the free browsing technology has evolved from chat systems developed for low bandwidth communication. Public and private AW universes are being created with worlds for chatting, gaming, exploration, distance learning, corporate communication, training, planning, and virtual homesteading.
The Cornell Theory Center (CTC), Cornell's high-performance computing and communications resource, is coordinating the effort to develop SciCentr so that the teens and young adults who inhabit the AW public universes can experience a world that focuses on leading-edge science and technology and so that they can participate in this world's evolution. This is a natural stage in the evolution of CTC's use of the Internet for research communication and informal science education. A prototype SciCentr, now under development, has been supported by theU, AW's ground zero for education, Circle of Fire, and the Contact Consortium, a group of professionals and educators dedicated to ensuring the constructive use of virtual worlds for education and community building.
A Look Inside
Active Worlds technology enables you to build interactive 3D environments that are shared across the Internet by multiple users. Visitors to SciCentr will be embodied as avatars and thus they will share their thoughts and experiences as they explore. They will also be able to join in group activities. Within the environment, they have access to the power of the World Wide Web and all other compatible Internet technologies.
The first incarnation of SciCentr is being modeled after a cross between a World's Fair and a traditional science center. The space will encompass hands-on exhibits, lab spaces, science fairs, and communications spaces. Exhibits will also feature gateways to related Internet resources. Such a multi-user space brings new meaning to the concept of a virtual field trip! And makes follow-on activities a breeze for educators. In the long term, we forsee the virtual worlds technology becoming a tool for enabling completely new and innovative teaching methods.
SciCentr Programs
Exhibit content will be contributed by scientists, teachers, technologists, and students at Cornell University, as well as by collaborators in industry and education. In particular, the SciCentr's first exhibit will focus on molecular modeling work at CTC's NIH-funded Resource for Biomedical Scientists. The SciCentr has also invited contributions from the ThinkQuest program, an international competition in which teens develop educational Web sites for their peers.
The preliminary work is being managed by CTC under the direction of Margaret Corbit, CTC science writer. Corbit coordinates production of CTC's informal outreach programs. She is overseeing content development--working with the collaborators, contributing researchers, and student developers. Collaborators include Bruce Damer, founder of the Contact Consortium (CCON) and author of Avatars. Damer is currently a visiting fellow at the University of Washington. Master Builder Stuart Gold, professional architect and coordinator of theU, will oversee the design and construction of the many spaces from his home in Great Britain. Professor Eric Pyle of West Virginia University will contribute his expertise on adolescent science education and Stuart Kohlhagen, director of exhibit design at Questacon, Australia's national science center in Canberra, will advise developers on the constraints of multimedia interactive exhibits. In addition, Mary Ann Steiner from the Minnesota Science Museum has expressed interest in advising on working with teens to develop exhibits and may provide a team of developrs. This international collaboration will be conducted over the Internet, focusing on the "in world" communication. Particular research areas of interest include interactive exhibit design and the effect of role-playing on the visitors experience.
Student developers are working at the leading edge of this technology, with opportunities to add to and enhance it's functionality. Young content providers will be learning to use a new medium as it evolves. And scientists will have the opportunity to think up new ways to explain and explore their fields.
World Status
A trial world, CTCTest, has been launched. Circle of Fire has committed support for the founding of SciCentr and the server is being installed and the ground breaking is scheduled for October, 1998. CTC is providing hardware and systems support for SciCentr. Staffing is funded through CTC and the Cornell Young Presidential Scholars Program. The team designer is a digital art student.
Current projects include development of a central plaza for the world and the core architectural feature, a take off on the concept of the Trylon and Perisphere from the 1939 World's Fair. These symbols were chosen because they represented a technological revolution that introduced among other marvels, the new medium of television. Research into this phenomenon is intended to foment discussion and creative thinking on the part of the undergraduates working in this new digital medium. In addition, issues surrounding site management and the use of avatars are being workded out. We will develop areas of the world that allow interactive molecule building and group activities.
The Next Step
After initial exploration of the medium, CTC proposes to host a workshop that will bring the collaborators together on the Cornell Campus. Over a period of three to five days, each will present his or her perspective on this new technology. The workshop will focus on the potential of virtual world technology as a tool for science outreach. At the end of this meeting the group will forge a plan of action for fully implementing the SciCentr. We expect that this workshop will generate as many questions as answers and that participants will leave with a wealth of information. In addition, this session should generate a wealth of interesting ideas and research questions. Proceedings and other resources developed as a result of the workshop will be maintained by CTC on a Web site connected to the SciCentr.
Corbit will introduce the world, its technical features, and issues surrounding support, management, and development of exhibits during her presentation at Ed-Media.
For further information regarding this project, contact:
Margaret Corbit CTC Science Writer and Mistress of a New World!
Related URLs: