10k: A platform for immersive science education

Across the country, students are unengaged and unmotivated in science classes, resulting in lowered self-efficacy and decreased interest in further STEM classes or STEM careers. For schools, falling test scores and fewer STEM courses offered affect rankings and the ability to attract students and staff. A strong and growing body of research indicates VR’s promise for improving student engagement and motivation, affect towards science, and content understanding. But producing VR content that is interactive, accurate, and can be tailored to different curricula has until now required specialists with expertise in science, curriculum development, software development, and design. Dynamoid's 10k is a pioneering data visualization platform that empowers scientists, educators, and researchers to create interactive VR experiences based on real data without having to learn any coding or design skills. The next developmental phase aims to refine 10k experience-production methods, construct a scalable curriculum development model, and further validate the efficacy of immersive 10k experiences. Aim 1: Refine and replicate methods to create immersive experiences across diverse content areas. The team will improve the 10k Creator application, refine the 10k content production model, and demonstrate consistency in the platform’s production of educational experiences across subject matter/content areas. Aim 2: Develop and test a model for developing 10k-integrated curriculum with relevant stakeholders. The team will gather real-world data from teacher partners about their curricula and implementation environments, develop diverse 10k-integrated activities, develop assessment strategies, implement a sample curriculum for one VR experience, and draft guidelines and best practices to enable designers and educators to embed these experiences within existing curricula. Aim 3: Evaluate the impact of the 10k immersive experiences and curriculum on student engagement, understanding, and interest in science. The team will implement a field trial of 10k experiences and curriculum to generate evidence for scaling up. Our primary goal is to inspire more students to pursue STEM careers by fostering deeper student engagement and content knowledge in life sciences. The ultimate vision is for 10k to become a cornerstone in research and education, creating a positive feedback loop between working researchers and students that accelerates scientific progress.