Ecomobile: Integrating augmented reality and probeware with ecology education field trips

Background/Question/Methods

The EcoMobile project (http://ecomobile.gse.harvard.edu) combines an augmented reality (AR) experience with environmental probeware during a field trip to a local pond environment to encourage student engagement in and understand of their local environment. We designed activities to address ecosystem science learning goals for middle school students, and to aid in their understanding and interpretation of water quality measurements. The intervention was conducted with five classes of sixth graders from a northeastern school district. During the field experience, students used mobile wireless devices with FreshAiR™, an augmented reality application, to navigate the pond environment and to observe virtual media and information overlaid on the physical pond. Virtual elements allowed students to see images, video and 3D representations of microscopic organisms and ecosystem processes they couldn’t directly observe in the real world due to the difference in the temporal and spatial scales between the observer and the observed. This AR experience was combined with probeware, as students collected water quality measurements at designated AR hotspots during the experience. We assessed measures of student attitudes and their content learning gains, as well as feedback the teachers provided via written surveys and verbal interviews.

Results/Conclusions

Gains were found in student affective measures and content understanding following the intervention. Based on teacher feedback, the combined technologies promoted student interaction with the pond compared to conventional field trips and also supported collaboration among classmates. In addition, teachers reported that the students demonstrated deeper understanding of some ecological principles than was typical on prior field trips without these technologies, and that students had expanded opportunities to engage in activities that resemble scientific practice. Overall, results of the students’ surveys and teacher feedback suggest that there are multiple benefits to using this suite of technologies during environmental education field trips.