From jokaydia: Exploring Virtual Worlds and Games in Education

Displays and Exhibits

Second Life residents are creating displays and exhibits on a broad range of subject areas. Using images, text and multimedia they are able to create dynamic, interactive displays and exhbits which avatars can move in and interact with.

Explore the projects below or Return to the Educational Uses of Second Life Homepage.

The International Spaceflight Museum

The International Spaceflight Museum hosts exhibits and events about real-world spacecraft, rockets, and space travel at their two islands in Second Life - Spaceport Alpha (SLurl) and Spaceport Bravo (SLurl).

Exhibits at the International Spaceflight Museum include:

• the Planetarium which includes a short NASA video, an interactive exhibit of the constellatons, and a virtul telescope
• the Canadian Robot Arm ("Canadarm") - an interactive exhibit, the Canadian Arm is used to assemble spacecraft on orbit
• Gemini 4/Titan II, an interactive exhibit blasting off into low earth orbit
• a tour of the Solar System, including the Asteroid belt, with a side trip to the surface of Mars
• models of the Viking Lander and the Soviet Union's N-1 Moon rocket
• an interactive map of Cape Canaveral
• the Lower Rocket Ring which includes models of rockets, built to life-size scale
• the Real-time Satellite Propagator which shows satellite models orbiting the Earthin their current positions in real time

The Museum also hosts regular events including lectures and demonstrations and streaming video of rocket launches.

Watch a Virtualbridges tour of The Rocket Ring at YouTube - The Rocket Ring - Intl's Spaceflight Museum , visit the ISM Exhibit Wiki for information on individual resources and exhibitiosns or get more information at the International Spaceflight Museum website .

Exploratorium Island, Sploland and the Splo Museum

The Exploratorium - the museum of science, art and human perception in San Francisco created the very first museum in Second Life in April 2006. Since they they have developed interactive science museums at three locations Second Life. Each allows residents to explore art and science whilst having fun. You can visit 'The Splo' at their original location - Splo Museum at Midnight City (SLurl) and visit them at Exploratorium (SLurl) or Sploland (SLurl) Islands which are located within the Scilands continent.

The Exploratorium's spaces in Second Life house more than 100 exhbits including:

• optical illusions and perception exhibits,
• a 3D map of the nearest stars
• the Pie Ride
• the Distorted Room
• the Orbital Experience where visitors ride around the orbit of the planet of their choice
• Splo Box - science and humor and art
• the Steampunk Museum which contains puzzles and curiosities
• Peeps Pond
• PI Alley, which was created for the Exploratorium's annual PI day celebrations
• Moucault's Pendulum
• a Brownian Motion simulation, where visitors can ride inside the polen spores in Browns original observations
• PI Henge, a tribute to the world of imaginary numbers

Th Exploratorium has also hosted a wide range of events in Second Life including the 20th Anniversary of PI Day Celebrations, the Transit of Mercury - broadcast live from Kitt Peak National Observatory to Second Life and theTotal Eclipse broadcast live from Turkey to Second Life.

For more information watch a video tour of Sploland, read the paper: Creating Museum Content and Community in Second Life or find out more on the Exploratorium's Virtual Worlds website.

Remember Me - Alzheimer's Exhibit on HealthInfo Island

Remember Me was an exhibition of a series of photographs by Canadian photographer Cathie Coward that gives visitors a sense of what it's like to be part of the Alzheimer's community, created by the Alzheimer's Association of Ontario in 2007. It was originally housed at the Info Island Exhibit and Displays building as part of the Second Life Library 2.0 project, and has recently been moved to a more permanent home at Healthinfo Island (SLurl).

The exhibit includes a podcast station where visitors can listen to the 'Talk for Memories' podcast, an information point that includes links to additional web-based information and a link to 'Coffee and Prayer,' a video documentary about Alzheimer's disease. Visitors can also walk through 'Head Space,' a life-sized, multi-coloured brain scan sculpture, engage in kinetic poetry or practice their recall with the Memory Board game and engage in displays which provide information about caring for people with Alzheimer's.

For further information read a report on the launch of the exhibit, view images of the ASO's space in Second Life on Flickr or watch a GoogleVideo - Media Walkthrough of ASO Exhibit in Second Life.