Students’ attitude change towards science when learning with a virtual world based curriculum: a case study

Abstract

The purposes of this case study were to examine if a virtual world based science curriculumcan change students’ attitudes toward science and science related careers, and to identify challengesduring the development and implementation of this curriculum. The Science through Second Life (StSL)curriculum is an innovative project that aims to create an engaging learning environment for high schoolstudents using the virtual world Second Life and other applications in the larger Internet ecology. TheStSL was developed, prototyped, and implemented by Global Kids Inc., a non-profit organization based inNew York. Data was collected from 19 freshman high school students (10 female, 9 male) during a schoolsemester through classroom observations, pre- and post-surveys, and semi-structured interviews. Dataanalysis revealed that more students considered having a science related career after participating in theStSL curriculum, and many reported having a better understanding of how scientists think and work.