SciCentr’s JumpGene world features the phenomenon of transposable elements or jumping
genes. It demonstrates a number of interactive and game models for presenting its
content and features the mechanics, social and technical impacts, and historic context
for this field of research.
In this SciFair world created at Lincoln-Orens Middle School, in Island Park, NY,
users explore a maze to learn about the past, present, and frightening future of
the tropical rainforest.
Cornell University hosts a universe (CUni) of virtual worlds focused on both
exploring and creating content. They are designed to support our five main
types of programs:
SciCentr is an online science museum of 3D, multi-user exhibits
featuring basic science and contemporary research, especially projects at Cornell
University. Some exhibits are framed as galleries, some as games, and others as
interactive laboratories. In them, students and educators can interact to learn
about interesting topics ranging from wave science to genetics. Read our
SciCentr
program summary
.
SciFair is a science communication program through which
teams of teens collaborate with student mentors at Cornell University to build their
own exhibits. Students gain the tools for working with the innovative medium of
virtual worlds (technology literacy), as well as science literacy and valuable team
skills through working with college students and peers. Read our
SciFair
program summary.
Cornell has partnered with MST-Connect, a consortium of business, educational instutions,
and state agencies in the Greater Southern Tier of New York State, to launch a summer
camp, Southern Tier SciFair, on an expanded model of SciFair. Cornell
students and staff are training and supporting undergraduate mentors at Corning
Community College. This team of mentors is in turn supporting summer camps at 10
middle schools across the Southern Tier.
CYFair (Cyber Youth Fair) is an offshoot of SciFair run through the
Worlds for Internet Technology and Science (WITS) project funded by the
National Science Foundation through its
Broadening Participation in Computing initiative. CYFair follows the same
process model as SciFair but with a different focus. The WITS project supports development
of a new service learning course in Computing and Information Science (CIS 190)
through which undergraduates gain familiarity with networked computing technologies
and 21st century workplace skills while at the same time supporting CYFair teams.
Read our CYFair
program summary.
We also support CyberCiv
programs focused on ancient civilizations for integrated Middle School education,
and Museum Discovery:
Designing in Cyberspace workshops and summer institutes for Girl Scouts.
Visit CUni as Our Guest
Access to SciCentr and SciFair worlds within CUni is limited to program participants
and official visitors. This is primarily for the security of the youth participating
in our programs. To arrange for a tour of our worlds,
contact us.
We ask all visitors for a letter of request, explicitly stating their educational
interest and affiliation. Letters must be on official letterhead and have a real
signature. They can be sent by mail, fax or PDF email attachment. All visits will
be guided, and must be scheduled with our staff.
Explore AWEDU as a Tourist
Our AWEDU worlds described below are currently offline until further notice. For
the time being, their contents are available within CUni according to the same policy
described above.
If you would like to investigate informally, two of our worlds are contained within
AWEDU, the Active Worlds Educational Universe. AWEDU is a universe of educational
worlds hosted by Active Worlds, which supports a community of educators, students,
researchers and designers from around the globe.
Our AWEDU SciFair world currently features a world built by the graduate students
from Cornell’s ERGO (Ergonomics) Group, which is led by Alan Hedge.
SciCentr world in AWEDU features the original vision of a landscape scale worlds
fair of science exhibits. This original world was the inspiration for all of the
new SciFair and SciCentr worlds now contained within CUni.
To visit our AWEDU SciFair and SciCentr worlds, you will need to download and install
the the ActiveWorlds Educational
Universe browser. Once you have the software installed you can visit the
worlds as a tourist at no cost.
