Gamified geo-challenges for immersive learning

Project LIVE (Learning through Immersive Virtual Environments) is a cross-disciplinary initiative at the University of South Australia to embed immersive virtual and mixed reality experiences across the breadth of our STEM teaching program. In Earth and Environmental Science, the Project LIVE team has recently created a series of gamified geo-challenges and virtual tours of instructive field sites for use in undergraduate teaching, to both supplement and enhance traditional field experiences. This presentation will demonstrate our flagship geo-challenge developed for the Hallett Cove Geological Heritage Site in Adelaide, South Australia. Entitled Beyond the Ice, it incorporates several complementary elements including an immersive VR experience, web-based geotour, iOS and Android mobile learning game and 360 street view walking trail, all of which are freely available at https://www.projectlive.org.au/beyond-the-ice. The interactive VR quest challenges students to identify fossils with a virtual hand lens, measure glacial striations with a compass, and draw the outlines of rock folds and sedimentary layers that shape the landscape with digital ink. Students are also accompanied by the encyclopaedic ‘VT’ – a virtual robot guide with a geological memory spanning 600 million years – and can take part in quizzes, collect 3D pet rocks, and even uncover hidden ‘Easter eggs’ on their journey of scientific discovery. The uptake and impact of our geo-challenges across both undergraduate student cohorts and STEM outreach audiences will be discussed, along with further geoscience and community engagement opportunities currently being explored.