For students taking biology at Arizona State University, their first lab experiences are likely to involve extraterrestrial life.
The university has ditched traditional intro bio labs—the kinds where students learn to use a pipette or dissect an animal—in favor of a virtual reality experience set in a VR wildlife sanctuary for alien beings. It’s part of a partnership between ASU and VR entertainment company Dreamscape Immersive, cofounded by Men in Black producer Walter Parkes, that the university says has boosted student performance in biology, including by members of groups historically underrepresented in higher ed.
The collaboration, called Dreamscape Learn, came after ASU President Michael Crow visited one of Dreamscape Immersive’s entertainment centers and was struck by the company’s Alien Zoo experience. As the university and the VR producers began to work together, Parkes says they found that the three-act structure familiar to moviegoing audiences also naturally suited teaching students about science.
“That cadence of the three acts at the beginning, the middle, and end actually fits very beautifully over science and exploration, as in the discovery of a problem, the analysis of a problem, and then some kind of resolution to the problem, whether or not you’re right,” Parkes says.
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