Techland

Abstract

Techland is a virtual world completely focused on math and science (geosciences, chemistry, biology) for K6-K8 students, which has been well tested for school activities and projects in an Italian middle school. Recently, Techland has made a slowly transition from a general STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) world to a more specific and contextualized environment, with the aim to apply scientific concepts to the challenge that our society has to face today: climate change, exploitation of raw materials, pollution/remediation, green energy. Themes like circular and shared economy, sustainability, ONU Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals are becoming more and more important in education. Therefore, Techland virtual environments have been expanded and improved and new environments have been created. An interdisciplinary perspective has been adopted to treat environmental themes using an inquiry-based learning methodology (IBL) adapted to virtual worlds and activities based on collaborative building, storytelling (machinima videos), and gamification.