Virtual Access to STEM Careers: In the Field Experiments

The Virtual Access to STEM Careers (VASC) project is an intertwined classroom and virtual reality (VR) curricular program for third through fourth graders. Elementary school students learn about and take on the roles and responsibilities of STEM occupations through authentic, problem-based tasks with physical kits and immersive VR environments. This article reports on a round of curriculum and virtual environment development and in-classroom experimentation that was guided by preliminary results gathered from our initial VASC prototyping and testing. This specific iteration focuses on curriculum for learning about sea turtles and tasks regularly completed by park rangers and marine biologists who work with these creatures and a new backend data collection component to analyze participant behavior. Our results showed that educators were able to setup and integrate VASC into their classrooms with relative ease. Elementary school students were able to learn how to interface with our system quickly and enjoyed being in the environment, making a positive link to STEM education.