Engaging students in STEM education through a virtual learning lab

Abstract

Rather than waiting for students to pursue STEM education, virtual worlds and games can be used to bring science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to the students through engaging and socially oriented activities. We are developing a virtual science museum and education center that provides virtual practice with basic engineering concepts and transforms an entertainment-based platform into a delivery vehicle for electrical engineering and computer science content. This approach offers students autonomy and immediate feedback, and is designed to attract diverse audiences to engineering and computer science. This paper reports preliminary results of this research study. © 2011 American Society for Engineering Education.