Data from Kamran Sahami’s research with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science showed that female astronomy students made substantially greater gains learning in an immersive environment than their male counterparts.

When Associate Professor of Physics Kamran Sahami designed the ALIVE (Astronomy Learning in Immersive Virtual Environments) research project, he was curious about the effectiveness of different pedagogies. He never imagined the extent of the differences in learning styles between genders the project data would demonstrate.

And yet that is what ALIVE, a three-year joint project of Metro State and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS) funded by the National Science Foundation, has shown. Initial results of the study indicate that, while all students learn astronomy better in an immersive environment (as compared to a lecture/ textbook format), gains among females are significantly greater: on the order of 40 percent, compared with 15 percent gains among males.

Sahami says his data show that “it’s time to challenge the assumptions of how we teach most effectively,” particularly to different genders.

Understanding cognition
In the first phase of the ALIVE project, students were interviewed and given diagnostic tests to “determine what cognitive model exists beyond giving the right answer.” Sahami says the interviews were to determine what the students were thinking when answering questions. “Even in the case of a right answer, students were often using faulty logic—usually because they couldn’t visualize the spatial relationships involved.”

Sahami says the tests and interviews helped his team “find where the problem areas are. So much misinformation (about astronomy) is acquired visually, partly because textbook pictures are frequently inaccurate.”

In Phase Two of the ALIVE project, Sahami’s team “developed visualizations to directly address misconceptions and cognitive models” identified in Phase One, using software, called Cosmic Atlas, developed at the DMNS. “There are two ways to learn astronomy: experientially and diagrammatically. Cosmic Atlas allows us to go back and forth seamlessly between the two,” Sahami says.

Sahami’s team devised a study with Metro State astronomy classes divided into three groups. The first group, the control group, uses the typical high-tech “smart classroom” on campus. The second uses the Cosmic Atlas software, projected onto a flat screen in class on campus. The software shows astronomy in the correct scale, Sahami says. The third group gets into a bus and heads to the Gates Planetarium at DMNS, where students travel virtually through space. Multiple projectors hooked up to a computer create a model of the solar system where everything from a lunar eclipse to “lift off” from the earth can be experienced in 3-D. The lectures and curriculum given to all three groups are the same.

In this way, Sahami says, “we could quantify how much is gained from using the virtual environment software alone (group two), versus the immersion (group three).”

Results show gains with visual software, even more with software and immersion
The results indicate that use of the software alone produces improvements of 8 percent to 10 percent among all students. But when the software is used in the immersive environment, the gains grow, to the aforementioned 40 percent for women, 15 percent for men.

“If the cognitive model requires a spatial understanding, females do better in an immersive environment, or with a wide-field display,” Sahami says.

He believes that this finding may have applications for other fields, such as art history or architecture.

Seeking more data
Sahami says that while his findings are statistically significant, he doesn’t yet have quite enough data to assert the ALIVE project’s results within the 99 percent confidence level. “We’re looking to get there,” he says. Toward that end, he is requesting additional funding from the NSF to continue the project and gather more data.

“This study has been a great fit for Metro State, with its teaching emphasis,” Sahami says. “The diversity of the student body at Metro State adds to the robustness of the data.”

To read a profile on Sahami, go to http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/artman/publish/sahami_twv4062007.shtml.