The Mário Schenberg Spaceship: Experiencing Science in a Collaborative Learning VR Environment

This paper presents the Mario Schenberg Spaceship, a virtual reality (VR) based collaborative learning environment for astronomy, science and physics learning. The installation has a spaceship-like scenario, where a group of learners experiment an adventure in space. Learners interact with six workstations to play a collaborative but not competitive game. The goal of the game is to complete a mission, which consists on rescuing a population from a distant planet threatened by an exploding sun. Tests with students and teachers showed strong engagement and rich learning opportunities for this kind of environment.