Educational Topics

In addition to the site that was chosen for the paper, three other Second Life sites were explored for their potential educational value. 

International Spaceflight Museum 

This area of Second Life is one of the most amazing sites I have seen!  A rocket enthusiast wanted to develop a SIM world with models of rockets and space stations.  He partnered with others who have direct knowledge of the individual items.  These scientists bought space in Linden Lab’s Second Life virtual world.  It is set up exactly like any museum with exhibits that move and tours you can attend.  There is a magic carpet ride through the museum that has a Soundcloud audio that syncs with Second Life for a full experience.  This world spurned NASA to create their own educational facility in Second Life as well as many universities with aeronautical programs.  This would be a great place for students to go to learn about the rocket and space program history.  There is a plethora of information that could be used for a research project or other historical context.   

Explorer Island 

This is a site developed and maintained by NASA as part of their Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  You can explore and learn about missions to MARS, the effects of physics in outer space and on other planets, and lots of exhibits.  Most of the exhibits are not interactive and are more informative.  As you walk around and click on exhibits you receive notecards with information about the item, like in a museum.  There are some meeting places set for conferences and general gatherings.  There is a giant asteroid floating around and when you click on it, you get a notecard about asteroids.  In general, this appears like it would be a good location for a virtual school field trip.  It is not geared towards curriculum instruction and does not have any assessments to speak of, but still has educational value in its exploration. 

Warwick University Maths 

There were several sites that mentioned this world, so we visited looking for opportunities to explore.  Unfortunately, we found very little.  The activities had to be purchased and everything was very spread out.  Compared to Genome Island and the Spaceflight Museum it was very lacking.  It would be hard to lead a class without lots of teleporting within the island.  It was also extremely easy to fall off of the ramps and pathways and then you find yourself in the ocean!