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June 21, 2018

Educational Assessment Tools Embedded in STEM VR Games – Killer Snails


Killer Snails, a small business funded by the National Science Foundation, is using a customized virtual reality (VR) game, BioDive, to develop an educational assessment tool that measures student learning in real-time.

BioDive is an immersive VR experience for middle and high school students aged 12 and up. The single-player game has three to five-minute scenes where students are marine biologist investigators trying to identify what is harming the delicate ecosystems of venomous marine snails. Throughout their expedition students discover and analyze factors that impact marine biodiversity.

As students play the game, educators see a real-time assessment of each individual student’s learning process. The Killer Snails dashboard shows student knowledge acquisition aligned to Next Generation Science Standards. At the same time, the dashboard provides teachers with opportunities to engage learners in deeper and more meaningful levels of inquiry before, during, and after gameplay.

Killer Snails is supported by America’s Seed Fund powered by the National Science Foundation, a $200 million program that awards research and development grants to small businesses and startups, transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact. To learn more visit: http://www.killersnails.com/.

Original air date: June 21, 2018

Credit: NSF


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