Virtual Worlds

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.