SBIR-STTR Award

This STTR Phase I project will develop and test a learning platform to facilitate independent, personal and enjoyable science education. The platform combines an engaging book, whose characters employ a fictional virtual environment to solve a mystery, with a complementary computer-based virtual environment to support games, explorations, and interviews with Expert Avatars (XAs), such as Albert Einstein and Henrietta Leavitt, that appear in the book. The goal is to increase the interest in science for children in grades 5-8, where there is a shortage of science teachers, and where educational tools must compete with the high level of technology to which young people are attracted, like games with talking avatars and virtual personal assistants to answer their questions. Increasing students' interest in science careers can help fill the projected worker shortage for high tech industries and provide desperately needed science teachers. Filling these jobs is expected to increase America's GDP (and tax revenues) and high tech exports. This project will develop the initial offering in a projected series to facilitate independent learning of science, mathematics, engineering, history, the arts and other subjects through interesting stories and exciting virtual environments populated with XAs for the leaders in their fields.The project will build on the successful application in education of computer-based virtual environments and games by adding two important features. First, the digital content will be complemented by the book, whose characters use a fictional virtual environment to solve the same STARDUST MYSTERY posed in the game. What is STARDUST? Where, when and how did it form? How did it get into George Washington and from him to you? The book provides an introduction, user's guide, scaffolding and sales channel for the game. Second, the virtual environment and game, developed with Unity 3-D, will be populated by XAs for some of the great minds in science. The game will support virtual explorations, such as a trip back through time to the Big Bang and virtual visits with the XAs. The XA's will be backed by an artificial intelligence (AI) system to support a conversation where students' can get answers to questions about the XA's contributions, their lives and their period in history. Responses will be generated using customized knowledge bases for each XA and a hybrid, cloud-based AI system. The project will include a formative evaluation of the game combined with book excerpts to assess the benefits of, and receptivity to, the game, book and XA combination.

This SBIR Phase II project will provide an engaging independent-learning platform which weaves science into an exciting story for ages eight to thirteen. The platform combines a time-travel adventure game, a complementary book, and in-game avatars for important scientists (like Albert Einstein) that can answer students' questions. It is aimed at the need for educating more science and engineering professionals by tapping into children's strong interest in games to augment current science curricula that students often find boring and uninteresting. The story is about STARDUST (atoms) and its formation and history in the universe. It engages students by taking them back in time to identify trillions of atoms they personally inherited from Einstein and the last T-Rex. Besides school use, the game's independent learning and engagement allows distribution directly to children for recreational use, adding another avenue for science learning, and a sustainable business model for the Company through school and commercial sales. The technology can also support independent learning in underperforming schools. The development of the scientist avatar artificial intelligence technology will have wide application for many other educational and training requirements. The innovation is a unique platform for independent learning about the sweeping science saga of atoms during the history of the Universe and Earth, and the connection of each student to that history through the trillions of atoms they inherited from prior beings like Albert Einstein and the last T-Rex. The platform combines video games, a complementary fictional story book (based on the science) that acts as game introduction and player guide, and in-game avatars (like Albert Einstein and Henrietta Leavitt) that can provide verbal answers to students' spoken questions. The artificial intelligence backing the scientist avatars includes learning manager software that guides student learning and provides assessments of progress in achieving pre-established learning goals. Four players cooperate in time travel adventures, exploring the human body, the Earth, and the Universe to find out what STARDUST is (atoms), how and when it was created (in the Big Bang and supernovae), how it got into Einstein, and from him to others (e.g., the carbon cycle). Excellent test results for the Phase I prototype game suggests a successful start at creating good player engagement. The project will continue to combine learning and engagement in 10 additional episodes with new scientist avatars including female and minority scientists.