Ac 2012-3423: Sustaincity a Interactive Virtual Reality Game Promoting Engineering Design in Pre-engineering Curriculum

This paper presents a working-in-progress project that designs a virtual reality (VR) game system to infuse cyberinfrastructure (CI) learning experiences into the pre-engineering classrooms and to promote science and engineering design in context. Using city infrastructure as the theme and engineers solving real-life problems as the scenes, the games of future sustainable city design engage students, particularly prospective and beginning science and engineering students, in CI-enhanced and -enabled science and engineering discovery. More importantly, the games incorporate the access to visualization, simulation and collaboration tools that cater a great interactive and collaborating learning environment for students to digitally explore science and engineering concepts via virtual analysis, design, and production. This paper focuses on the metacognitive and CI tools being conducted by students in various VR game modules, their contributions to student learning, and how the games and tools together fit seamlessly within the pre-engineering curriculum, particularly the Project-Lead-The-Way programming.