This award will expand the educational resources available through The Geology Explorer, an interactive virtual environment (IVE) developed at North Dakota State University for the purpose of teaching geoscience. The "Geology Explorer" program, in which students simulate landing on a newly discovered planet to identify rocks and minerals and model geologic relationships and structures, originated as a college level course now used at multiple universities. The software has been recently modified so as to be age appropriate for use in grades 6 through 12. During this project, two new geoscience modules that can be incorporated into secondary grade level Earth science, chemistry, or math classrooms are being designed and implemented. The first is a probability module using gold exploration as the motivating story. The second module is being developed in collaboration with local chemistry teachers. Standards-based curricula and assessments to support these new modules are also being developed. The effect these new modules have on students' ability to connect skills used in geoscience to those used in other career opportunities and science disciplines and students' attitudes regarding perceived relevance of math and science beyond high school is being evaluated. At the college level, rigorous evaluation has consistently demonstrated that IVE students perform higher on assessments than those exposed to more traditional instruction.
