EXAMINING STUDENT INTEREST CHANGE IN GEOSCIENCE FOLLOWING A SMARTPHONE-BASED VR FIELD EXPERIENCE

Virtual reality techniques can provide an immersive user experience in support of geoscience education, such as by increasing access to place-based learning opportunities through virtual field experiences. Here we report results from a pilot study (n=42) of a virtual reality field experience exploring coastal science issues that was designed for and deployed on smartphones. A Likert-type survey was administered before and after each participant completed the virtual field experience. The survey was designed to probe student interest, presence in the virtual environment, connectedness to nature, self-efficacy, STEM identity, and sense of belonging in geosciences. Based on the calculated change in student interest, participants were categorized into one of three groups: i) growing interest (any increase in Likert-type responses from pre-survey to post-survey or an interest that remained high), ii) potential interest (responses that remained neutral from pre-survey to post-survey), and iii) undetermined interest (any decrease in interest from pre-survey to post-survey or an interest that remained low). Four ANOVA tests were performed, each comparing the change in sense of belonging, change in self-efficacy, students’ STEM identity, or presence in the virtual environment to change in student interest. No significant relationships were found between interest and sense of belonging (F(2,39)=1.155, p=0.326), self-efficacy (F(2,39)=2.394, p=0.105), or presence (F(2,39)=1.249, p=0.249). However, STEM Identity (STEM ID) was found to be significant (F(2,39)=5.862, p=0.006) across all three interest groups according to the ANOVA results. A Kruskal-Wallis H test showed the relationship between students’ connectedness to nature and the three interest groups was not significant (H(2)=0.061, p=0.970). Results indicate that students with previous STEM experiences have a higher interest in the geosciences. In this short exposure to a virtual reality experience, we found that a students’ interest categorization did not influence their sense of belonging in the geosciences and self-efficacy. Presence in a virtual environment was found to have no impact on student interest in this case. Overall, the number of STEM experiences accumulated from childhood had the biggest impact on student interest.