• Sponsor: The National Science Foundation
• Target audience: students in Alexander Middle School in Ohio
• SL location: The Ohio STEAM sim in the Teen Grid
• Synopsis: Science Lab where students can conduct fun experiments.

The Interactive Science Lab lets middle school students conduct science experiments through Second Life without the hassles of doing them in real life. Along with Second Life being fun for the students to experience, each experiment has a game with a scoring system that helps keep the students entertained while learning. Upon arrival to the lab, the students walk around to find a lab station to sit at and they then receive a Heads-Up-Display (HUD) for controlling the experiments. The HUD is used to control the experiments, display directions, and to provide multiple choice questions to evaluate what the students have learned. Currently the students can choose on the HUD to conduct a Sugar and Water Solubility Experiment or The Redi Experiment. Both of these experiments are a lot easier to have the students do in Second Life rather than real life. The Interactive Science Lab gives the students a way to learn which can be more engaging and fun since it is in a virtual world. The students have so far enjoyed the science lab experience that I have provided them with in Second Life and the features that it provides over other digital curriculum.

Sugar Water Solubility Experiment

In the Sugar and Water Solubility Experiment the student’s score in the game depends on how well they conduct the experiment and this helps teach the concepts of the scientific method as they play. In part of the experiment the students get to pour a bag of sugar which uses its location to factor how much sugar is put in a measuring cup. The students need to consistently use the same amount of sugar in each cup for good results in their experiment and in turn a better score in the game.

Redi Experiment

The Redi Experiment is the experiment that Francesco Redi used to disprove spontaneous generation by having flies lay eggs to form maggots on meat in open containers and not in the closed containers. This module walks the students through the steps of the redi experiment and explains the thought process that Redi used in conducting this experiment to disprove spontaneous generation. This experiment is a lot more fun to have the students do in Second Life since I doubt any teachers would like to do this in real life.

In the redi experiment there are three jars with meat in with them: One of them sealed, one covered with a netting, and one left open. The Flies will fly around and lay eggs on the netting and the meat in the container that is open and then maggots will form. Once the maggots form the students then get to play a game by cleaning up the maggots by left clicking on them to make them disappear. After the students see this experiment happening they will then answer follow up questions through second life.