3 4 | L E H I G H B U L L E T I N C H R I S T A N E U were another group that used Mountaintop as a “A lot of it is springboard to launch the creation of an immersive technology we VR experience. already have; we Their work includes interactive games for K-12 students that focus on the Lehigh River Watershed are just putting it in and environmental topics such as fooding, climate one space where change and the impact of a former zinc smelting opstudents can work eration on the landscape in the Lehigh Gap area. collaboratively.” Bodzin’s team has been seeking funding to make the games publicly available through local envi- –STEPHEN SAKASITZ ronmental education centers and public libraries. They’ve been working with the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, the Nurture Nature Center in Easton, Lehigh Gap Nature Center in Slatington and the JacobsburgEnvironmental EducationCenter inNazareth. Bodzin frst became interested in VR technology about three years ago, while working with students at Building 21, a high school in Allentown, to collect environmental data from around the Lehigh Valley. When it came time to analyze that data with dynamic mapping applications on their computers, Bodzin said he found many of the students were distracted, instead playing video games. “I said, ‘What do you think about this idea of putting a headset on and doing something game-based in virtual reality?’” Bodzin said. “They said, ‘Wow, I think I’d like to try that.’ We developed a game and implemented it with 70 students who were mostly juniors and seniors and in environmental science classes.” The game was developed by the end of the school year, “when kids are really tuned out of school. We said, ‘If this thing works at the end of the school year, then we got it,’” Bodzin said. One of the measures the researchers used was “fow theory,” which means a participant is so engrossed in a task they lose track of time and distractions. The students who participated in the game exhibited this “fow state.” When learning about the environment, the games provide an important alternative for people who don’t have transportation and those withmobility issues, such as senior citizens who couldn’t easily hike along the Lehigh Valley’s many trails and waterways, Bodzin said. Some of the games also give a glimpse into the past by showing participants what the area would have looked like hundreds of years ago and recGraduate Assistant Bharath Kumar Sampath ’23G in the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning’s lab in the E.W. Fairchild-Martindale Library. reating meetings with historical fgures such as Stephen Palmer, the namesake of Palmerton and former president of the New Jersey Zinc Company. Bodzin’s team includes about 20 students, fve of whom are Lehigh Valley Social Impact Fellows from the Ofce of Creative Inquiry. The ofce has supported Bodzin’s work by providing paid internships, student stipends, conference fees and space, in conjunction with LTS, at the Mountaintop campus for a VR lab, audio/ podcast studio and video studio. “This is a real game-changer,” Mehta said. “I’m proud we saw the potential in this several years ago, and we seeded these projects. Now it’s time to hold these projects up as examples and exemplars in how embracing such new technologies can lead to innovations and transformations in higher education.” The Future of XR at Lehigh CITL is investigating collaborative applications that have been developed for the Oculus that allow multiple users to be in the same VR experience at the same time. For example, the technology could be used to connect Lehigh students with other students across the country. A group of students could use the headsets to work on a prototype in real time even though they aren’t in the same location, Sakasitz said. LehighSiliconValley students are exploring the technology as a way to connect employees who have been working remotely. Their idea is to purchase Oculus headsets that can be used by employees to have regular team-building meetings in a virtual environment, Sakasitz said. “From my point of view, we need to learn about how all this technology can be used, develop a game plan of how it can be implemented in a sensible way and go from there,” he said. Putting the technology into the hands of more users is the next step, which CITL hopes to do through the new student-centered lab. “A lot of it is technology we already have; we are just putting it in one space where students can work collaboratively,” Sakasitz said. Lehigh hopes to launch the new lab in the fall. L
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