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Moon Projects Debut on WV Public Broadcasting

Dated Posted: Fri Feb 11 2011

MoonGazers
Watch the report on YouTube.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting featured the Selene videogame and the MoonWorld virtual environment created by the Center for Educational Technologies.

This Week in West Virginia airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting channels throughout the state (in Wheeling Channel 10 on Comcast or Channel 8 on Centre TV). The weekly show emphasizes the background behind the news. The show is rebroadcast Sundays at 6 p.m.

Keri Brown, chief bureau reporter for the Northern Panhandle West Virginia Public Broadcasting office, takes viewers on a virtual journey to the Moon with her report on the two online educational videogames.

Based on the Timocharis Crater on our own Moon, the virtual MoonWorld asks visitors to carry out a number of geological expeditions on the lunar surface. Via their avatars, visitors discover and interpret evidence gathered through sample collection, core analysis, and descriptive and measurement observation at 16 field stations. They also must manage the rations of oxygen they are provided in their spacesuits when they explore the crater. MoonWorld can be accessed via SecondLife or OpenSim.

In Selene: A Lunar Construction Game, players learn difficult geological concepts like accretion, differentiation, impact cratering, and volcanism by applying these science concepts to help players move toward the game's goal of building the Earth's moon. Players construct the moon, then pepper it with impact craters and flood it with lava to experience how our moon formed and changed over time. All through the game Selene tracks each player's behavior to measure learning and the player's response to the game environment.

Both videogames are part of the MoonGazers suite of lunar-based educational activities offered by the Center for Educational Technologies. MoonWorld is funded by NASA, and Selene by the National Science Foundation after initial funding from NASA. Researchers at the center are using MoonWorld and Selene to study how students can best learn important science concepts and how that learning can be tracked in real time.

Players are always welcome for both games. To learn more, contact Lisa McFarland at 304-243-2479 or lisamc@cet.edu.