Students from six freshman soil science classes at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln recently visited the Smith-Lever Farm on one of the Cooperative Extension islands, Morrill2, in the Second Life ® virtual world. Their mission was to study a problem the farmer has with herbicide treatment of a cornfield and suggest possible solutions. This in-world experience will be compared with control groups of students that studied the problem in a regular classroom using text documents only.
A machinima of the students’ in-world experience can be viewed here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7KSxSiqlzA
The project is a collaboration between the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, the Institute of Agriculture & Natural Resources, and the Cooperative Extension System’s eXtension initiative.
Data about student behavior was collected during the event and findings will be shared when available.
To visit the build yourself, go to http://slurl.com/secondlife/Morrill2/190/56/24
For more information about Second Life contact LuAnn Phillips, eXtension’s Second Life educator at luann.phillips@extension.org.