Immersive Reality for Environmental Education Facilitation
About IREEF
IREEF’s mission is to understand the role of ocean-related extended reality (XR) – or “Ocean XR” – in marine education. The goals of this research are to: 1) assess the field of Ocean XR in relation to marine education and ocean literacy, 2) build a community of Ocean XR stakeholders (e.g., creators, researchers & educators), and 3) report our findings & recommendations through peer-reviewed publications and public engagement.
Why Ocean XR?
The ocean plays a critical role in planetary and human health, yet marine ecosystems are rapidly degrading from the effects of climate change, overfishing, and marine pollution. To restore ocean health, our societies and individuals must have ocean literacy, or the understanding of the ocean’s influence on us and our influence on the ocean. First-hand experience of the ocean is essential to develop ocean literacy, however ocean environments remain inaccessible to most. A promising tool to address this problem lies in extended reality (XR), like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), which offer vivid experiences otherwise impossible, expensive, or difficult to have. Despite its promise, little is understood with regards to how Ocean XR can contribute to ocean literacy and marine education, as well as the publicly available ocean XR experiences that be used to test such effects. This is why we need a comprehensive overview of existing Ocean XR.
Submit Ocean XR Content
As part of our research that assesses the field of immersive ocean education content, we are compiling a database of Ocean XR experiences. Have you created or used an ocean-related XR experience? Tell us about it below so we can add it to our database!
Contact
Meet the IREEF Co-Founders
Dr. Fauville is an Associate Professor at the Department of Education, Communication and Learning, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. With a double background in marine biology and in education and IT, her research focuses on how immersive media can contribute to marine education and promote ocean and environmental literacies. In her current research, she investigates the use of underwater virtual reality for marine education. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University, in charge of the research on environmental education.
Dr. Géraldine Fauville
Dr. Pimentel is an Assistant Professor of Immersive Media Psychology & an Environment Initiative Fellow at the University of Oregon. His research explores how augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) can inspire prosocial and pro-environmental attitude and behavior change. Danny serves as the lead XR Specialist of Yellow Wood Immersive where he develops AR/VR content. He is the creator of award-winning experiences including the AR lens “Penguin Rescue” and “Project SHELL,” a sea turtle conservation game supported by The Sea Turtle Conservancy, National Geographic, and Meta’s Launch Pad program.
Dr. Danny Pimentel
Dr. Woolsey is a marine biologist, National Geographic Explorer, Visiting Scholar at the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab, and Chief Scientist of The Hydrous, a non-profit dedicated to ocean science learning. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Erika conducted her PhD research in coral reef ecology on the Great Barrier Reef with James Cook University and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, earned her Masters of Applied Science in Coastal Management from the University of Sydney, and studied biology and art history at Duke University.
Dr. Erika Woolsey
Learn more
Watch our presentation Ocean XR: Assessing Immersive Technologies for Marine Education at Unity Creator Day
IREEF is an activity of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science as part of The Decade of Ocean Empathy presented by The Hydrous, which seeks to create “an inspiring and engaging ocean” through immersive educational experiences.
IREEF is supported by a grant from the Unity Charitable Fund, a fund of Tides Foundation.
