1. Spend 5 mins individually writing on Post-its. Each person writes 6 “Post-its” total. • 2 things you want to start doing as a team • 2 things you want to keep doing as a team • 2 things you want to stop doing as a team Cluster similar ideas. Pick one idea from each category. What SPECIFICALLY will you do to make a change happen?

 

 start doing:

• Routinely update each other on progress throughout the week
  • We tend to report our individual progress to Junior and have weekly meetings on Thursday wherein . Thus, currently, we only get updated on the progress each person has done once a week. However, now, we would like to update each other every day on the work we’ve been doing to ensure everyone is on the same page. 
• Spend time together in a non-work context to build relationships
  • We’ve realised that we only spend time with each other in our meetings wherein we are discussing work. Since half our team is working remotely, we haven’t been able to physically meet and actually get to know each other outside of work. Thus, we would like to start spending more time with each other outside of work meetings to build better relationships and get to know each other better, even if it’s on zoom.

 keep doing:

• Each person present their progress to the large group every week
  • As a means of keeping everybody accountable for their own work and contributions, we meet every Thursday (small group) and Friday (big group) to present our findings and explain our advancements in our own respective areas. 
• We have an effective communication system on Google docs with personal weekly goals  and check ins 
  • This helps us keep track of the work that we have done individually and as a group.

 stop doing:

• Stop being perfectionists = focusing too much on little details and wasting time
  • When it comes to the small details like in designing, coding, etc. we tend to be very specific with what we want causing us to overwhelm ourselves with unrealistic expectations for our work. 
• Don’t reinvent the wheel = use the resources developed by the team before our arrival
  • This is the 2nd year our project has been a part of the fellowship. Thus, we have last year’s fellowship’s resources. We should start taking inspiration from their framework instead of always starting from scratch and spending triple the time. Thus, we would like to stop reinventing the wheel every time and instead take inspiration from the previous team’s resources.

 

 

2.Develop a detailed Collaboration Plan for your team clearly articulating your Goals (Small g and Big G), Roles, Procedures, and Relationships.

 

Every week we have a GoogleDoc detailing our collaboration plan for that week. Each group member has specific roles and responsibilities: 

Udita : Programming

Marcos: Environment development (RS)

Josie: UX

Mayra: UI

Our main goal is to develop a working prototype of the 2nd game in our project(iVR2). Our small goals are our weekly tasks which will eventually help us accomplish our main goal. We have individual tasks that we have to complete every week. Every Friday in our full group meeting, we present the work we got done that week. This way, everyone in the group is accountable for their work and is aware of everyone’s progress. Along with our weekly goals, our GoogleDoc has a check-in box where each team member writes an update of what they were able to accomplish and what they’re struggling with so that the rest of the team can step in and help out. We also have a GroupMe group chat where we constantly update each other.

  → Udita: 

  Goals: 

(A) Focus on Puzzle three.
→ Instantiate the grid with random colours.

→ Program it in such a way that when the player clicks on the space bar, the grid should be destroyed.

 

→ Marcos

Goals:

1. Focus on designing 100mya landscape

       → Implementing appropriate texturing

       → Downloading vegetation and forestry assets for landscape

      2. Create Kittatinny Ridge

       → Equalize plane from left to right (Scene 3)

       → Eliminate redundant assets

 

→ Mayra 

 Goals:  

(A) STORYLINE PROGRESSION:
— metallic zinc comes out of the smelter to feed the furnace blasters. 

→
(B) GAME CONNECTIONS with other iVR games: 

— Three stages of the landscape of the Lehigh Gap throughout the time periods.

— Lehigh river is the main medium for transportation.

— Iron production has an impact on the environment.

→

(C) NPCs:

1. a) Mining/transporting/smelting period: Josiah White (monopoly on the coal)
2. b) Simulation in the Palmerton Zinc smelter:  Palmer
3. c) Revegetation stage:  Kunkle

→ 

→ Josie

Goal: 

(A)  Start prototyping the tilemap.
→ Modify existing Unity features to create trapezoidal shapes

(B)  Merge the Pebble puzzle skeleton with Udita’s grid instantiation script.
→ 

1. Set out with a purpose and meaning to make a difference, whether it’s in terms of increasing the quality of life, turning something wrong into right, or preventing the end of something good.
2. Make a mantra that should be short and crisp, followed by employees/team members.
3. Get going! Think different and polarize people. Find a few soul mates who balance you and are good at what they do.
4. Have a specific, simple business model.
5. Weave a MAT (milestones, assumptions, and tasks).
6. Create a niche, which is a unique product/service and adds great value to the customer.
7. Follow the 10/20/30 rule. Have 10 slides in your pitch, make sure your presentation is completed within 20 minutes, and your font size is 30 points.
8. Hire infected people, who are not only well educated and well qualified but also passionate about the product. Hire people who are better than you.
9. Make your product easy to use. Flatten the learning curve and don’t ask people to do something that you wouldn’t.
10. Don’t let people grind you down. Don’t believe people who tell you can’t succeed and won’t succeed.

 

Does your work require IRB approvals…right now? At a later stage? If Yes, articulate your detailed IRB strategy. If No, explain why you don’t need IRB approval and identify situations when you might need IRB approval.

As of right now, our team will not be applying for IRB approval. However, in the future, when our project has a fully functioning prototype, we will need to apply for IRB approval as our research will qualify for human subjects research, albeit at a low-risk. Our project goals are to design, develop, and test a set of 5 game-based learning activities in an iVR environment to promote spatial understandings of the Lehigh Valley watershed, including historic and contemporary environmental issues. Each will be designed to take 15-25 minutes to complete. Our team is working on the second game, iVR2 – Lehigh Gap Superfund Site and Restoration (LGNC). This iVR game will focus on the historical, ecological, and environmental issues of the Palmerton Superfund site at the Lehigh Gap.

In this project, we will use the opportunities afforded by iVR, such as exploring multiple time frames (geologic, historical, personal) and providing abstraction (e.g., animations and 3D spatial markup to illustrate differences in topography and geology) to direct learners’ attention and support broader environmental science understandings.  Learning materials that are typically presented in more traditional ways will instead become highly immersive, immediate, and personal by situating the learning in the learner’s lived experience.  In the end, we hypothesize that adolescent and adult learners will demonstrate high levels of engagement and significant knowledge gains about their watershed and relevant environmental issues. 

Research Questions

Our research primarily focuses on how the iVR learning model impacts interest in the games, engagement, and learning with a full spectrum of users from age 13 to adults.  In addition, the research investigates whether the impact of iVR gaming features varies across social conditions (individual player, player within a group setting, non-headset participant within a group setting).  Specifically, the following are the research questions (RQs):

RQ1: For iVR headset wearing game players, 

1a: What perceptions do iVR game players have of the game features (challenge, curiosity, narrative, guidance, reward) and local contexts (place-based, local, relevant) in the games they played? 

1b: What levels of engagement and flow do they experience?

1c: Do these levels of engagement and flow vary by the two social conditions (individual player, headset player within a group setting)?

 

RQ2: For iVR non-headset game participants, what levels of engagement do they experience? 

 

RQ3: Is there any significant difference across social conditions (individual player, headset player within a group setting, non-headset participant within a group setting) in the following measures?

3a: interest in the games;

3b: levels of engagement; 

3c: learning outcomes in terms of their knowledge of environmental issues in their local watershed;

3d: learning outcomes in terms of their spatial understandings of the watershed.

 

RQ4: To what extent are local contexts, gaming features, and VR experience related to participant interest, engagement, and learning in an iVR environment? Specifically, 

4a. To what extent are participants’ perceived local contexts related to their interest in the games?
4b. To what extent are participants’ perceived gaming features related to their VR experience?

4c. To what extent are participants’ VR experience and interest in the games related to their engagement?
4d. To what extent is participant engagement (or flow for players) related to participant post-learning outcomes (in two areas— knowledge about environmental issues and spatial components of watershed), holding constant their pre-learning measures?

RQ5: To what extent do returning participants’ learning measures (two areas— knowledge about environmental impact in local watershed and spatial components of watershed) change across the duration of the grant, holding constant their interest and engagement and conditions?

 

Participants:
Participants include Lehigh and Northampton county Pennsylvania (Lehigh Valley) residents from ages 13 to adult who will attend (a) iVR individual player and headset player within a group setting experiences at four informal STEM centers – LGNC, NNC, D&L, and Jacobsburg and (b) iVR individual player experiences at seven public libraries.  Over the course of the entire grant period, we expect over 4,000 participants.  

 

Instruments and Measures:

Each of the data measures aligns to an immersive VR learning model component and will be used to address each research question. When combined, it will take a participant 15-20 minutes to complete a pre-test or post-test. They will be administered before and after an iVR game at the STEM centers and libraries. Total implementation time for pretest, iVR game, and posttest is estimated at 1 hour.  A survey will be used to measure the following:

• Attitudes toward learning with VR games
• Immersion and presence
• Specific gaming features (challenging tasks, curiosity, strong narrative, guidance and feedback, and intrinsically rewarding)
• Perceptions of learning about their local environment, environmental issues, authenticity, relevance, and local historical contexts
• Self-reported cognitive, behavioral, and affective engagement
• Flow
• Self-reported interest or intrinsic motivation
• Knowledge of environmental issues and impacts in a user’s watershed. 
• Gender, age, ethnicity, and for returning iVR participants 

 

Engagement Observation Protocol: 

Trained observers will score individuals’ engagement with the VR social learning experiences (one person in a VR headset with others viewing on a projected screen).  This protocol records the affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement of a participant.

Focus groups: Focus groups will be conducted with questions designed to elicit users’ perceptions of learning with iVR games, features that made users feel engaged, and immersed in the experience.

 

 

Mid-Semester Presentation Outline:

1.Title Slide (slide 1)

Who we are (Backgrounds of everybody) (Short & sweet)

2. Problem  (slide 2):

Lack of engagement, interest, and often understanding among students in formal education’s traditional classroom model.

3. Solution (slide 3): 

Widespread use of game-oriented, immersive technology as a tool in educational settings.

4. Stakeholders and Partners (slide 3): 

Lehigh University natural scientists, instructional technologists, and learning researchers, with informal educators at four different informal STEM centers – Lehigh Gap Nature Center (LGNC), Nurture Nature Center (NNC), Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor/National Canal Museum (D&L).

5. What we’re working on ( Role of the team)(slide 4): IVR 2 game which will focus on the historical, ecological, and environmental issues of the Palmerton Superfund site at the Lehigh Gap

6. Individual Roles: Marcos => 3D backgrounds, Mayra => UI, Josie => UX, Udita => programming 

• • Provide visuals on coding, imagery, and UI/UX planning strategies that recur during meetings. 

7. Timeline=  (Current Phase + Next Phase)   (slide 6): summarises plans visually

 

• What supporting evidence will you provide for each point?
  • For each point, we will provide an example of how we address that point with our current partnership with the LGNC. For example, in questioning the accuracy of our information, we can explain that we have weekly meetings with the LGNC staff and experts from Lehigh’s EES department.

 

• How will you boost your credibility every step of the way?
  • We will provide details about the success of our current partnership and development to prove our credibility for future partnerships. 

 

10 THINGS THAT MAKE ME FEEL HUMAN

1. Taking risks by getting out of my comfort zone and exploring new things
2. Spending time with people who truly understand me, support me, and lift me up
3. Using my voice and skills to help others
4. Having drive, motivation, and ambition to strive to conquer my goals
5. Being productive and taking steps each day to achieve my goals
6. Being empathetic and understanding other people and their perspectives
7. Finding joy and appreciation in the smallest of things
8. Feeling grateful for my privilege
9. Taking ownership of my actions and not being a victim of my circumstances. Instead, acknowledging my circumstances and moving ahead bravely with a positive outlook
10. Being optimistic

 

I am ambitious. I set high goals for myself and strive to conquer them. I’m hardworking, motivated, and driven. I’m not competitive with others – my only competition is myself. I take challenges bravely, with a positive outlook. I’m not afraid to put in extra hours of work. I’m empathetic, kind, and understanding. I’m patient and always ready to help. I like mentoring other people and guiding other people to achieve their dreams. I strongly believe that what goes around, comes around. I’m extremely genuine and don’t like to surround myself with drama and toxicity. I love spending time with my family and friends and creating memories with them.

I love traveling and opening myself to different countries and cultures. Despite growing up in a metropolitan city like New Delhi, I had no exposure to any culture but my own, sparking a deep desire for cultural diversity. In search of that, at the age of 15, I went to summer school at the University of Chicago where I engaged in intellectual conversations with students from all over the world and made friends who shared their cultures—Mexican, Brazilian, Vietnamese, and Egyptian—with me. Through discussions about our respective stereotypes, festivals, and social norms, I encountered diverse perspectives and learned the true meaning of global citizenship, making me more respectful towards other cultures. In continuation of my quest for diversity, a year later, I attended the World Youth Meeting in Kyoto. Inspired by Japanese culture, I mirrored their punctuality, politeness, and attention to detail. Through my diverse experiences, I encountered new degrees of my own self-awareness, humility, and inclusivity. By opening myself to different countries and cultures, I became more understanding of other people and felt more connected to their lives. Interacting with people from different walks of life broadened my perspectives and made me more emotionally intelligent. Through these experiences, I found myself becoming more compassionate, adaptable, and resilient. Hoping to build on these qualities and diverse experiences, I chose to pursue my undergraduate degree in the US instead of India.  I want to continue to immerse myself in diverse experiences. Doing so has not only made me comfortable with the uncomfortable, but also made me more confident, innovative, and eager to learn. As a learner, I would like to continue engaging in different academic courses to broaden my horizons and learn across disciplines. I want to continue to be ambitious and driven to achieve the high goals I set for myself. I’d like to continue to mentor people and guide them. Staying true to my Indian roots and values is extremely important to me. I hope to continue to be proud of my culture and heritage.

 

Specifically, in relation to my LVSIF project, I want to engage by programming the virtual reality games, contributing to the prototypes and ideation of the games, as well as gain feedback from the users, and conduct analysis on the data they provide. I must engage because I’m passionate about promoting game-based informal learning as well as working towards a sustainable future. Moreover, being a woman in STEM, I hope to help make STEM learning more accessible. I must engage with the LVSIF fellows in my project team, the professors I’m working under, as well as the partners of my project like the Nurture Nature Centre and Lehigh Gap Center. There would be several challenges that would come up while programming the games like bugs. I would have to work around them by continuing to learn new features of the programming language and problem-solving as a team. I’m excited to test the games out on the users, gather data, and see the entire project come together.

My epitaph might read “With a smile on her face and brave stride, she conquered it all”.