Meet the Creator behind CURVE

Who?

My name is Erin Johnson. I am a Bahamian marine ecologist, currently matriculating in a doctoral program as a PhD Candidate.

Why?

I was born and raised in Nassau, The Bahamas, and spent a lot of my childhood in Eleuthera, The Bahamas where my dream for becoming a marine biologist was born. Any holiday, school break, and summers I was on a plane as an unaccompanied minor going to my aunty's in Eleuthera. I was meant to be meeting new family members and helping her out in her shop, but unfortunately for her, the shop was across the [5 foot wide] street from the beach. So, naturally-- for me at least-- I spent most of the time in water, swim or not! In those days, kids didn't need much convinving to jump in crystal clear waters instead of working at their summer job, so I wasn't alone. I developed a passion for marine biology from pure curiosity of not knowing what I was looking at underwater. I knew from then the water was where I belonged. I wanted to learn more about it; I wanted to study it; I wanted to protect it.

So, I told my mother and she got right to work on figuring out how her little girl was going to be a marine biologist. It was NOT easy! I will ALWAYS applaud my parents, especially my mummy, for how hard she worked to get me where I am today. The marine biology space [when I was growing up] was microscopic. Only a few organizations existed-- to my knowledge-- at least; and the few that existed were financially or logistically unattainable for me. I got my first real breakthrough in the marine biology space when I interned at a field station in Bimini as high school senior for my Independent Study Project. From then, by the grace of God, doors started opening and I got to where I am today.

The Inspiration

When I first started my Ph.D. journey, I had the amazing opportunity to collaborate with scientists from 3 institutions to create a series of curated, 360° virtual reality videos for undergraduate students at the respective universities. Special shoutout to Dr. Elizabeth Stoner for having the vision and me a big part of it. We named it the Coastal Marine Ecosystem Experience. As part of my dissertation, I took the experience and collaborated with Bahamian high school educators to create marine ecology strands that fit into high school curriculums. Find out more on that work here: Exploring Coastal Environments Through Virtual Reality. My high schoolers responded positively to this experience that I wanted to do more. The videos, as it stands, are cinnematic virtual reality (CVR) videos, so users are unable to interact with the VR environment. So, I wanted to create something interactive. I figured: developing virtual reality is a HUGE feat, and I don't have the capacity. I reached out to professionals at my school and, with good cause, it was expensive. So, on the drive home from work [DON'T TEXT AND DRIVE], sitting in non-moving, bumper-to-bumper Miami traffic, I googled "Is it doable to develop virtual reality modules?" Surprisingly, I didn't have to go too far down a rabbit hole to find Unity Engine and their AMAZING learning pathways. Many months, tears, and breakdowns later... Boom! CURVEs. I'm still unsure how I did what I did, but I'm super proud of myself and excited to see what else I do!

Special Team Recognition:

• Jack Wolfe: An Academic Technologist in the Academic Technology Center at Bentley University. He is an experienced Unity developer, among other tech programs [Bledner, Photoshop, etc] who became my mentor throughout my first CURVE module development.

  
  

• Steve Salina: The Principal Instructional and Research media Production and Infrastructure Engineer in the Academic Technology Center at Bentley University. Steve also became a mentor to me during my time developing my first CURVE module.

  
  

• Dr. Bryan Dewsbury: My Ph.D. advisor who, even though had no experience with VR development, encouraged me every step of the way and reminded me how much of a [lunatic] bad-a** I was for even taking on this adventure. I am forever grateful.

The Why Behind CURVEs

Today's learning tools are not yesterday's learning tools. Technology is rapidly advancing, the environment is constantly changing, but students and learning is often left behind. As scientists, we conduct meaningful research, make implications, publish fancy science jargon in peer-reviewed journals, and hope to inspire the next generation of scientists. How can we expect that if we're not even creating a space for them to fully grasp the complex concepts we speak of? How can we expect that if opportunities to gain experience are few and far between? Many scientist prefer old school tactics under the guise of "if it ain't broke don't fix it", but today's generation are not entertained by old school ways. Today's generation is advancing with technology, so we as STEM educators need to as well to keep students engaged!

Virtual reality (VR) is an innovative tool that has become more and more popular in the education space, especially in the medical and arts fields. Between my background of growing without marine environmental opportunities and being part of the development for the Coastal Marine Ecosystem Experience, I saw an opening for VR to be more than cool classroom trips or 360° videos [not that those strides aren't amazing within themselves]. CURVEs were created to utilize VR as an inclusive and interactive tool for education in the classroom. So many students face physical, financial, and logistical barriers that prevent them from physically being underwater, exploring marine environments. So, my intention is for CURVEs to be an educational tool that can provide a more inclusive learning environment at scale for high school and undergraduate students. I do not intend for CURVEs to replace authentic, in-field experiences, but more of a temporary alternative for students to learn and practice research skills in the comfort of their classroom until an opportunity is attainable for them. Each CURVE combines creativity, technology, and a deep understanding of learning to create a unique experience for students and educators alike.

Key Features of CURVE:

• Carefully Curated Experiences: Each CURVE is modeled after an actual experiment [old or current] that students can be part of. Students will learn about research tools and techniques and conduct the research activities done for the experiment. Students will also receive simulated data from actual experimental models that they can analyze and deduce their results.

  
  

• Interactive Capabilities: CURVE are a form of Immerisive Virtual Reality (IVR), meaning the students is fully immersed in an artificial environment. In the artificial environment, they use VR controllers to interact with research tools such as clipboards, calipers, marine species, etc.

  
  

• Full Immersion: CURVEs also offer Cinematic Virtual Reality (CVR) where students can view underwater, marine environments that match the CURVE they're experiencing.

The Future of CURVE

As CURVE continues to grow, I am hoping to collaborate with other scientist in virtualizing their experiments or even fieldwork they constantly do. I want each CURVE to be a learning experience, yes, but also a training tool so that participants can prepare for opportunities they're interested in pursuing or gearing up to do!

The future looks bright for CURVE, and I am excited about the possibilities.