[Yr7-10it] Virtual worlds sustainability curriculum - opportunity? expression of interest?

[Costello, Rob R]

Howdy 

 

I've been involved with Swinburne Uni in developing a virtual world for
teaching sustainability 

 

Its based on the popular 3D game engine Unreal Tournament -   with all
weapons taken out and using it an immersive simulation 

 

The purpose is learning sustainability principles 

 

Stage 1 (an explorable house, and the need to complete various quests,
and balance budget and 'green points') is complete

 

There is a need to develop support materials (eg supporting teaching
materials for this)

 

We're going to the Aus Science and Maths School this week to discuss all
this (they're co-sponsoring it via SIMERR) 

 

So ..., in brief, would anyone be interested in contributing to the
curriculum development?

 

We can provide you with the simulation itself, free of charge  - there
are several hours of game play if played through start to finish - and
we want to leverage it with supporting curriculum etc

 

(its currently being extended to include a virtual school as well in
Stage 2)

 

(its loosely inspired by River City (with their encouragement)- but
differences are 

(a)     its network based, not internet 

(b)     broad theme is sustainability, not disease transmission etc  [RC
was also about 'scientific method]]

(c)     its based on Unreal, not ActiveWorlds 

(d)     its being done on a shoestring 

 

So... although there are no definite plans yet for how to move forward
with curriculum development (may be after this week) this is an open
invite to see if people would be interested, even loosely, in such an
effort

 

May involve developing or testing lessons or supporting curriculum and
seeing how it goes with students ,,, and of course free access to the
simulation itself 

 

Rob Costello

ICT Coordinator

Weeroona College 

Whitehills, Bendigo 

0425 761 277 

03 5443 2133 

 

 

 


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