Many students, if given the choice, would likely pick sitting on a boat over sitting in class any day of the week and while that’s not an option for most, a recent grant will help Ohio University bring the boat to the classroom for many high school students in the form of a computer game.
But this won’t be a relaxing virtual vacation. The game is for academic purposes, and will allow students to “conduct two- and three-dimensional water sampling along a virtual river using an existing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) database,” according to a news release from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
“This virtual iPad experience will allow students…to study (the) effects of human activity on water quality in the Ohio river basin,” said Erin Strouse, spokeswoman for the Ohio EPA.
OU will be creating the virtual boat simulation as part of a $45,253 grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, according to the news release.
The virtual river simulation will allow students to run simulations of “current river conditions from Marietta to Gallipolis” using “information from a Global Positioning System,” according to the news release.
Students will be able to “‘test’ for dissolved oxygen, fecal coliform, biochemical oxygen demand, temperature change, total phosphate, nitrate, turbidity, and total solids,” according to the news release. Their findings will be representative of data “collected by the university and the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission,” the news release said.
The game will be available as both an “iPad and desktop computer game,” and will be “field-tested” in two high schools in Athens and Meigs counties as well as shown publically “through one-week exhibits at public libraries in the two counties, and a Research and Create Activity Expo at the university,” according to the news release.
