Science Through Second Life

[Judy O'Connell]

The Science For Second Life project run in 2008 which integrated Second Life and a wide range of web tools into a standards-based high school science class in New York City, has now published an independent evaluation that was conducted during the project .

Key findings included:

* Students’ attitudes towards science-related careers changed positively with the StSL curriculum.
* Students’ self-efficacy and self-confidence in their abilities to do science-related work increased.
* Compared to the traditional science curriculum, the number of students reporting being overwhelmed by science class fell by 50%.
* 40 minutes of class time was not enough for the range of activities on many occasions.
* Students’ low literacy skills played a major role in shaping the curriculum activities.
* Low achieving students’ grades improved significantly compared to the previous semester.
* Students’ collective intelligence skills improved throughout the semester. More students reported that they felt more comfortable working with others to get something done using digital media in the post survey.
* Students’ confidence in the effectiveness of blogging, doing Comic Life projects, and using SL for science learning increased throughout the semester.

Download a PDF of the full evaluation findings here.

Worth reading how Web 2.0 tools were integrated into the project as well!

Report from the Global Kids Digital Media Initiative.