This academic inquiry examines the efficacy of virtual reality (VR)-based pedagogy for higher learning, specifically analyzing immersive digital instruction for rural agriculture undergraduates studying soil science in Colombia. The investigation tests two hypotheses: first, simulated learning situations improve academic achievement and student…

This work addresses and aims to fulfill a very clear need in teaching biosystem engineering. When introducing students to the complexity of soil processes, one of the frustrations that teachers often experience is the impossibility to demonstrate practically, in the lab, some of the concepts and processes discussed in class. Either the experiments…

This paper reports on a project in which students designed, constructed and tested a model of an existing early warning system with simulation of debris flow in a context of a landslide. Students also assessed rural community members' knowledge of this system and subsequently taught them to estimate the time needed for evacuation of the community…

Guided by the Next Generation Science Standards and elements of problem-based learning, four human-environment systems simulations are described in brief--carbon, energy, water, and watershed--and a fifth simulation on nitrogen is described in more depth. These science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education simulations illustrate…