Supporting Watershed Literacy with a Desktop Virtual Reality Exploration Game

Abstract

A prototype desktop Virtual Reality (dVR) exploration game was developed as a curriculum enhancement activity for promoting watershed literacy with middle school students. It focuses on the spatial components, geography, and history of their local watershed. The dVR exploration game was implemented in the summer of 2021 in eastern USA during the COVID-19 pandemic with 35 learners aged 10–14 during summer school. Immediately before and after gameplay completion, the participants answered a 9-item watershed literacy measure assessing essential elements of watershed understandings. The preliminary findings revealed players’ improved ability to identify their own local watershed and how it connected to the ocean by rivers, creeks, and human-made structures. The watershed literacy measure was found to be a valid and reliable instrument.