FUTURE WORLDS: Development of Assessment Methods for an Interactive Cyberlearning Platform for Informal Explorations in Sustainability for Students Ages 9 – 12 (Research to Practice)

FUTURE WORLDS is an interactive, museum based cyberlearning system which aims to expose students from grades K – 12, specifically targeting students ages 9 – 12, to the concept of sustainability in an informal setting. Through the FUTURE WORLDS interface, which is currently under development, students will have the opportunity to explore various sustainability concepts and environmental engineering practices, which can both help improve present day society as well as provide practical solutions for our future. Students will investigate concepts related to energy, food and water, and will examine how these ideas can be engineered to help improve the health of our planet. Using an interactive tabletop, students will work collaboratively in a museum based setting to solve sustainability puzzles of varying difficulty with the goal of generating a cleaner, greener planet. In order to develop the most effective and efficient game, several assessment methods are being employed to ensure students attain optimal learning outcomes from FUTURE WORLDS. Various focus groups have been conducted, where students’ knowledge was assessed both before and after interactions with a paper prototype model. The data collected from these interactions is undergoing analysis to examine student learning and engagement with the FUTURE WORLDS framework. Video and audio recordings were collected at the focus groups as well to evaluate the effectiveness of collaborative learning among the student participants. Ongoing investigations will take place throughout the development of the FUTURE WORLDS cyberlearning system to iteratively assess its effectiveness in translating sustainability and environmental engineering concepts to K – 12 students in a museum setting. Assessment methods developed to evaluate the effectiveness of FUTURE WORLDS will be broadened in order to establish a standard for assessing informal engineering education practices for K – 12 students. The results are expected to motivate a rise in informal engineering education practices for K – 12 students by demonstrating the importance of early exposure to these disciplines.