Waterland Developed in 2013, Waterland is completely focused on water: chemical and physical properties, statistics on resources and consumptions, water. footprint, sources of water pollutions, wastewater treatment plant, and phytoremediation are shown and explained. The project involved about 25 students. More info in italian language here
Statland This projectexplores how teaching statistical science at middle and high schools can be established in a virtual world. In nowadays society citizens are called to play an active role, using data to solve problems in a wide variety of fields and applying statistical knowledge to social, economic, and ecological problems, in order to make decisions in situations of uncertainty. It is then important to begin the quantitative study of collective phenomena since the first years of compulsory education and, consequently, to provide teachers with adequate training. Statland was built as part of a project for the dissemination of statistical literacy at school, in collaboration with the Italian National Institute of Statistics. Statland is an island of the grid Techland, an OpenSim-based virtual world, where people log in as avatars. By exploring Statland and interacting with dynamic learning objects it is possible to learn the steps and methodologies required to perform statistical surveys. Statland is a virtual meeting place for students, teachers and statisticians who want to try out new approaches to the statistical sciences. Proceeding of the Immersive Education Initiative, Paris 2015
Mathland Arithmetic It is the arithmetic section of Mathland. Project involved 4 cohorts of students (80 in total) for an entire school year. They collaborated together, sharing ideas and dividing job (building, coding and editing). Since then, other students have visited Mathland Arithmetic from school (IWB) and at home. This project shows how visual coding in virtual worlds has helped middle school students in learning and computational thinking and using it to solve complex problems. In the Techland OpenSim-based Hypergrided grid, middle school students built and scripted 3D objects using a Scratch based programming language called Flash Scratch to Linden Scripting Language. The 3D objects built by the students were mostly 3D representations of mathematical concepts. More info in italian language here
Glassland The island of Glass. Winner of the "GlassCircle" italian national contest sponsored by Assovetro, The National Association of Glass Industrialists.
Machinima Videos Machinima, the combination of the words machine and cinema, is a special film technique that allows the creation of stories taking place in virtual worlds and in video game scenarios. Videos in various formats are produced using software for the capture of the PC screen and video editing suites. This is a different and original way to report about projects carried out during the year. Left: One of the winner of the Italian National Contest by MIUR-PNSD Right: video fron the song "I 100 passi" by Modena City Ramblers