1. Identify two SPECIFIC funding sources for the design phase of your project and two SPECIFIC funding sources for the dissemination (implementation / distribution / commercialization) phase of your project. For each funding source, explain why this is a good fit for your project, and what SPECIFIC aspect of your project might the funding source support.

• Design Phase:
• Office of Creative Inquiry
  • This current funding source is crucial to our project as it provides a network of people whose goal is to provide lasting social impact, and it does so through Lehigh University, where our team is based. It also provides valuable teaching on how our venture will grow.
  • The funding from this source goes towards upfront software costs to use Unity, costs for VR-capable laptops for the team, and VR headsets for the team to conduct testing on. 
• Environmental Education (EE) Grants through the EPA 
  • This funding source is a good fit to our team because it has a specific focus on environmental education, which we have cemented with our current nature center partnerships. They provide “financial support for projects that design, demonstrate, and/or disseminate environmental education practices, methods, or techniques.” This aligns directly with our project as we seek to revolutionize environmental education with VR technology.
  • The funding from this source would go towards the testing and publication of the IVR game

 

• Dissemination phase:
• Department of education (local, state, national)
  • This funding source is a good fit for our team because they have a vested interest in improving education in the Lehigh Valley and beyond. They will bring us closer to the classrooms and learners who we create experiences for, and have the means to support us.
  • The funding from this source would not only grow our network of potential schools interested in our custom-designed educational experiences, but also help fund our team travel, marketing, and communication with our customers. 
• AISL through NSF (advancing informal stem learning)
  • This funding source is a good fit for our team because they have a specific interest in projects that enhance STEM education in an informal setting. This includes our work with museums, nature centers, zoos, national parks, and any other informal learning centers. 
  • The funding from this source would not only grow our network of potential informal learning centers interested in our custom-designed educational experiences, but the funds would cover software development costs such as the purchase of digital assets to best teach environmental concepts.

 

2. Identify five specific partnerships that you need to forge to advance your project forward with the ultimate goal of positively impacting Lehigh University AND ten other universities. Describe exactly how each partnership might help you achieve scale and why that entity might be willing to work with you.

• Pennsylvania Department of Education

• • •  Partnering with the PA Department of Education would give us a broad network of schools and classrooms that would be potential customers for our VR games to teach environmental concepts to students. They might be willing to work with us because their goals of providing the best learning experience for their students align with our goals of improving educational experiences through immersive VR.  

• Da Vinci Science Center

• • •  Partnering with the Da Vinci Science center would provide us a connection to the network of museums and science centers in the Lehigh Valley and beyond, which would give us an opportunity to prove our expertise and advertise our success to other local museums or science centers. They might be willing to work with us because of their emphasis on hands-on learning for science concepts, which aligns directly with our goals of making learning content more engaging for students, particularly in the realm of environmental science.

• Lehigh Valley Zoo

• • •  Through partnering with the Lehigh Valley Zoo, we will be able to get accreditation from implementing our VR technology to help teach about the sustainability of wildlife. Since The Lehigh Valley zoo is part of an association of Zoos and Aquariums, they will help connect us to similar facilities looking to expand their educational goals. Since their motive is to teach about wildlife preservation, we could help in further emphasizing the importance of animals in the world through games which will enrich the experience by making it fun and interactive.

• Lehigh County Parks & Recreation Office

• • •  Partnering with the Lehigh County Parks and Recreation Office would connect us to a broad network of art museums, historical sights, and colleges, giving us an opportunity to market our product to a wider target audience. They might be willing to partner with us because their passion for nature and providing diverse recreational activities aligns with our goals of providing knowledge about sustainability in a fun, engaging way.

• Trexler Environmental Center

• • Partnering with the Trexler Environmental Center would broaden our network of environmental institutions as it houses satellite offices for the County Parks Department and PA Bureau of Forestry. They might be willing to partner with us because of their passion for environmental education programs they run through their center, which have a similar aim to our venture: providing engaging, educational content about the environment and how to act sustainably.

 

 

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16k_uJuR00_wI-VkjYE0GbRa0VDvNSwqr3pe42ECsO9g/edit?usp=sharing

 

1. Re-draft/refine your business models further – on each block of the BMC, have a visual and 1-3 bullet points. Remember, these are only “final” for now – you will continually refine your business models!

 

2. Further refine your Value Propositions – determine what your VP is, and craft it so that it is stated in a succinct, clear, compelling manner. Be ready to present, as a team, a 60-90 second statement of your value and purpose as an entity in class next week.

1. For educators who need to provide a more engaging learning experience, our custom-designed VR games are immersive learning tools that increase learner engagement and motivation.
2. We help learners gain a more insightful, engaging learning experience by providing immersive VR games through online access.

 

 

Articulate your value propositions for your diverse customer segments.

For educators who need to provide a more engaging learning experience, our custom-designed VR games are immersive learning tools that increase learner engagement and motivation.

We help learners gain a more engaging learning experience by providing immersive VR games for download online.

 

Discuss your Total Available Market and Total Addressable Market. List all your assumptions and hypothesis.

Our total available market contains the total number of visitors to informal learning centers (nature centers, zoos, museums, etc.). Our total addressable market contains the number of visitors at the locations that we have formed a partnership with and offer our VR experience (Lehigh Gap Nature Center, Nurture Nature Center, etc.). 

 

Assumptions:

• Through the use of a VR platform and its interactive features, it can make learning fun, engaging and educational.
• Informal learning centers would be open to using virtual reality games to educate their visitors
• Learners have access to computers to download the online game.

 

Hypothesis:

Providing custom-designed, immersive VR games to informal learning centers will strengthen their ability to provide an engaging learning experience for their visitors.

Identify five things you could do better with your seven-minute presentation.

1. Justify the problem more clearly.
2. Define our purpose more explicitly (education-focused, just starting with environmental)
3. Add more statistics about disengaged learners and then connect that to VR in education.
4. Explain that we are in Lehigh Valley because of our existing partnerships.
5. Draw a more direct connection between our partnerships and our work (how are they helping us?)

 

Did you respond to the referees’ questions in a concise and precise manner? Describe five responses you could have approached differently.

Our answers were not as concise or precise as they could have been. Many of the questions asked were more vague or general than we anticipated, so our answers tended to be more drawn-out than planned. Additionally, some panelists asked more than one question at once, so our answers were unable to be short and concise. Also, we tended to keep talking to feel as though we fully answered the question, even when it was not needed.

 

1. Question: What do all the terms flow, immersion, etc. mean? 
   1. How we could have answered better: These terms could have been defined more clearly in our slides to avoid confusion from the panelists. We already had a slide dedicated to explaining some of the technical concepts, so adding terms like flow and immersion to that part of the presentation would have prevented this kind of question.
2. Question: Why focus on local nature for the VR experience when that is something that the target audience can visit themselves?
   1. How we could have answered better: We explained that our game provides information that users are unable to get when visiting these places (like the animation showing the land developing over millions of years). However, we should have also emphasized that we are in this local area because of our partnerships. We are providing a product for them, and they teach about local history and nature, so our product will do that as well. 
3. Question: Did the pandemic make our project work easier or harder?
   1. How we could have answered better: We answered by saying that having content readily available online made our work easier and that it was more difficult in the sense that we had to adapt our game for a web or desktop format. We could have also used this opportunity to explain that the pandemic provided more justification for the need for effective virtual learning opportunities (which strengthens the appeal of our venture).
4. Question: Can you describe from your perspective what boundaries you are actually pushing?
   1. How we could have answered better: We answered this question by clarifying that we are using technology only as a learning tool (it is not the focus of our project). We also clarified that we are not replacing educators, just providing a learning tool. We could have improved our answer by having explained more thoroughly (with statistics) the disengagement among students. We could have explained that there is a disconnect, or a boundary, between students and the learning content. Our project will literally place the student into a world of learning content to help them maintain the focus and motivation that they are missing in a classroom model. 
5. Question: How are you highlighting the environmental concepts in your games?
   1. How we could have answered better: We answered by explaining that we coordinate with our partners/experts every week and in every step of the development to ensure that their curriculum content is being included and implemented in a way that aligns with their goals. We mentioned also that we hope students gain a broader understanding of their role in a bigger system after playing the game. We could have improved our answer by clarifying that the environmental content is not coming from our team but from our partnerships. We are translating their ideas into a game. Our focus is education in a broader sense, not environmental education. We need to make this more explicit in our presentation. 

 

Identify five techniques/strategies (content, design, answering questions, etc) that other teams did particularly well…that you could adopt for your own team.

1. Including statistics to justify the problem we are solving.
2. Split large groups of images into multiple slides rather than just one.
3. Explain why we are better than existing products.
4. Defining certain words/terms central to our work.
5. Develop a more organized plan for the Q&A section so it is more organized (plan more directly who is saying what)

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”.

1.*Based on your life experience, skills and interests, what would a design process that is both uniquely yours and effective look like?

Our project should be designed with aid in mind. It is not intended to form a trade partnership, though the benefits between our group and our partners can be mutual. We aim to improve environmental education about the Lehigh River watershed by developing and implementing a set of engaging, enjoyable, and immersive virtual reality game-based learning activities in partnership with local STEM centers and other informal learning centers in the Lehigh Valley. Our technology should be inclusive for all of its Lehigh Valley users, which includes a diverse set of ethnic backgrounds, ages, and learning abilities. This means a range of avatar skin tones, gameplay in Spanish, and other specific culturally aware decisions. We should also include simple game mechanics to allow a broad range of ages to use our technology, and sans serif fonts for users with conditions like dyslexia. In addition to designing our VR experience around our local audience, we must design it with specific regional history in mind. Our experiences are catered specifically to informal learning centers in the Lehigh Valley, not a standardized game for any location. However, although the game is being designed for local learning centers, users from anywhere should be able to access and learn from the game. We need to ensure that the game is not restricted only to people from the Lehigh Valley, but is also accessible for users in other areas. In terms of cost, to ensure accessibility, the cost of our educational game should be affordable to our partners. It should also be durable and reusable for long-term use with our partners. Our goal is not to create the most advanced, expensive technology, but rather an effective educational tool. The VR technology we use should not be the focus of our project, rather it should be the method through which we improve environmental education. Our intention is not to force the use of technology or replace traditional classroom learning, but to use it as an alternative method to augment and improve education. 

 

2.*Identify your three most important stakeholders and list five UNIQUE attributes for each one of them.

1. Lehigh Gap Nature Center:

–City of Bethlehem

-Motive to attract more visitors in order to raise awareness about the Lehigh Gap

–mission is to protect the wildlife and enhance the habitats

-Enabling visitors to engage in the unique game to facilitate learning about the Lehigh gap area

– In a unique location of 400 acres of bottomland wetlands, forested slopes. Cliffs, etc. that enables game users to first-hand see and apply concepts learned in the game.

 

2. Learners (game users):

-People ages 13 – 80 for headsets. 

-Interest to learn about the Lehigh Gap

-Anyone with access to a VR headset or desktop/laptop computer can play

-People have a positive attitude towards game-based learning and are curious about new technologies.

-Value the environment to become an environmental conservation advocate

 

3. Developer owners (Faculty):

-Experts in the technology and environmental sciences.

-Provide funding for project needs through grants.

-Responsible for fact verification for integrated in-game knowledge

-Serve as mentors for LVSIF students

-Based at Lehigh University

 

3.*Identify three ways in which you will validate your project concept, technology, usability, and business model.

Concept

1. We are working directly and intimately with our partners to ensure that the educational content is appropriate and accurate.
2. We consistently refer to our partners for feedback on designing the visuals of the project to match the context of the Lehigh River Watershed.
3. We are working with environmental experts who care about sustainability to design for an audience with an interest in gaming.

Technology

1. The game is available not only in VR but also in desktop form.
2. The game software is compatible with a variety of VR platforms, so it is transferable if the platform goes out of circulation.
3. Using the game development software Unity in conjunction with other programs for visual development like Roblox, the game can be designed with immersive visuals and effective game mechanics. 

Usability

1. The game will be designed with simple, understandable game mechanics to allow a wide age range of users to benefit from its educational content.
2. The experience offers a new and intriguing method of learning for students with an interest in games, as opposed to the traditional classroom model.
3. For users who do not find the gaming experience engaging, there will still exist alternative means of learning like literature reviews.

Business Model

1. The game offers an alternative for students who are uninterested in traditional classroom learning or find it less engaging. 
2. After the initial purchase of the VR headsets, with an estimated cost of $200 each, the maintenance costs should be minimal as most fixes should be software-related.
3. Our game offers a competitive advantage because it is being developed as a learning model based on pedagogical and educational research, not solely a VR game. 

 

4. Give three examples of something very interesting you learned from a friend that was a completely alien concept to you.

1.My friend shared a new concept of a cookbook that she came across. For years, cookbooks have been written assuming it’s only one person doing the cooking. This particular cookbook splits into 2 halves, each half featuring instructions to cook half the recipe so that 2 partners can cook with equal responsibility but in half the time. This initiative enables an equal way of cooking.

2.  My friend shared that the reason why humans crave unhealthy sugary/ fat foods in large quantities is because of our evolution. Earlier, food was scarce and so we would search for foods that would keep us satiated for long periods of time and would consume large quantities of it. That has been ingrained in our DNA. This tendency contributes to our cravings for unhealthy foods and large quantities of consumption of it.

3. My friend got a puppy during the pandemic. She was sharing how limited interaction with other dogs has made it hard to socialize puppies, leading them to show distress and anxiety when left alone. Dogs show their anxiety by whining and being distressed when the owner leaves them alone for a little while.