| Summary: |
Evaluation has moved up the agenda in science communication. However, some procedures, while available, may be too obtrusive
to use recursively in science centers and/or conflict with science center visitors' agendas. Our idea is to develop a non-obtrusive,
valid and replicable method to evaluate audience attitudes about science communication projects through an immersive virtual
reality environment that can improve exhibitions while educating and empowering citizens. We will embrace the Azores
International Research Center agenda, specifically, deep sea ecosystems sustainability, by producing new digital content and
carrying out pilot studies in local and national science centers. This approach will fill a gap in existing models that 1) fail to account
for self-generated visitor narratives about their science center experiences; 2) ignore the role of the visitor in the evaluation process
itself; and 3) disregards the effects of test-enhanced learning in the transferability of knowledge to other contexts. In order to
develop the immersive virtual reality environment, we extend the transformational play framework into the field of science
communication. The immersive virtual reality environment will have two modalities: for one person (individual condition) and for a
group of individuals (collective condition), that will be supported by a game-based approach and multilinear storytelling. The
journey will take visitors into extreme deep sea conditions, scaffolded according to three levels - a) awareness, b) understanding
and c) engagement - regarding science/technology processes and contents: In the individual condition, the environment consists of
a capsule with head-mounted displays and headphones to provide an immersive experience. In the collective condition, the digital
environment will be projected fulldome in a hemisphere room. In both cases, visitors will apply for a passport, choose a character
and a mission. The difference is that in  |
Summary
Evaluation has moved up the agenda in science communication. However, some procedures, while available, may be too obtrusive
to use recursively in science centers and/or conflict with science center visitors' agendas. Our idea is to develop a non-obtrusive,
valid and replicable method to evaluate audience attitudes about science communication projects through an immersive virtual
reality environment that can improve exhibitions while educating and empowering citizens. We will embrace the Azores
International Research Center agenda, specifically, deep sea ecosystems sustainability, by producing new digital content and
carrying out pilot studies in local and national science centers. This approach will fill a gap in existing models that 1) fail to account
for self-generated visitor narratives about their science center experiences; 2) ignore the role of the visitor in the evaluation process
itself; and 3) disregards the effects of test-enhanced learning in the transferability of knowledge to other contexts. In order to
develop the immersive virtual reality environment, we extend the transformational play framework into the field of science
communication. The immersive virtual reality environment will have two modalities: for one person (individual condition) and for a
group of individuals (collective condition), that will be supported by a game-based approach and multilinear storytelling. The
journey will take visitors into extreme deep sea conditions, scaffolded according to three levels - a) awareness, b) understanding
and c) engagement - regarding science/technology processes and contents: In the individual condition, the environment consists of
a capsule with head-mounted displays and headphones to provide an immersive experience. In the collective condition, the digital
environment will be projected fulldome in a hemisphere room. In both cases, visitors will apply for a passport, choose a character
and a mission. The difference is that in the individual condition the environment responds directly to the visitor's actions while in the
collective condition it will mirror the consequences of the majority of choices. At the end, visitors receive a "deep-sea-gram", which
is a short summary of their path through the game. More than delivering stories, the "deep-sea-gram" is expected to push visitors
to create and share their own stories about their experience and to signify their relationship with the scientific endeavour. To
develop a comparative framework, we will run several experiments to validate the method via within- and between-subjects plans.
The project's major contributions for the progression of the state of art consist in establishing more effective means of conveying
scientific information and persuading audiences about deep sea ecosystems; identifying best practices for the use of non-obtrusive,
digital evaluation methods in science communication; and using data analytics, gathered from the play experience, to redesign the
exhibits. This project is likely to create the foundations of a research line to foster new collaborative research projects in UT Austin |
Portugal focused on the Azores International Research Center agenda. |