Joint partnership proposes technology-enhanced education about water and sustainability
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History and Headwaters to Ocean (H2O) have proposed a new project on family education about water to the National Science Foundation. Titled Engaging Families in Immersive Learning Experiences with Virtual Environmental Systems, the project would conduct proof-of-concept and pilot studies that will provide the foundation for an interactive, immersive exhibit, and Water Journeys, at the Museum using interactive projection systems. The STEM content will focus on concepts related to how headwater springs, aquifers, streams, rivers, bays, estuaries, wetlands, and the Gulf of Mexico operate as a system, and the natural and manmade processes that affect that system. The target audience will be children and families in Corpus Christi and the larger South Texas region.
According to Co-Project Investigator, Rudy Rosen, Ph.D., “The proposed project will be the first of its kind to apply immersion in a highly interactive projected system directly tied to existing K-12 curriculum materials.”
The curriculum materials to be featured in the project are largely the work of H2O, a cooperative project sponsored by the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University and funding partner, the Ewing Halsell Foundation . H2O is an experiential, technology-enhanced education program focused on water, from headwaters to the ocean.