Sustain City - A Cyberinfrastructure-Enabled Game System for Science and Engineering Design

Volume 3, Issue 1 (June 2012), pp. 57–65

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@article{jocse-3-1-7,
  author={Ying Tang and Sachin Shetty and Talbot Bielefeldt and Kauser Jahan and John Henry and S. Keith Hargrove},
  title={Sustain City - A Cyberinfrastructure-Enabled Game System for Science and Engineering Design},
  journal={The Journal of Computational Science Education},
  year=2012,
  month=jun,
  volume=3,
  issue=1,
  pages={57--65},
  doi={https://doi.org/10.22369/issn.2153-4136/3/1/7}
}

The emergence of transformative technological advances in science and engineering practice has necessitated the integration of these advances in engineering classrooms. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a virtual reality game system that infuses cyberinfrastructure (CI) learning experiences into the Project-Lead-The-Way (PLTW) pre-engineering classrooms to promote metacognition for science and engineering design in context. The CI features, metacognitive strategies, context-oriented approaches as well as their seamless integration in the game system are elaborated in detail through two game modules, Power Ville and Stability. Both games involve students in the process of decision-making that contributes to different aspects of city infrastructures (energy and transportation). The evaluation of Power Ville deployment in a PLTW classroom is also presented. The preliminary assessment confirms the usability of CI and metacognitive tools in science and engineering design.