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Numedeon, Inc. Builds NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Micro-World for Kids, Offering Virtual Field Trip
Leading Developer of Virtual Worlds for Children and Tweens Helps NASA Center Create an Educational Micro-World
| Source: Whyville
PASADENA, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- February 8, 2007 --Numedeon, Inc., creators of Whyville.net, the leading educational
virtual world for children and young teenagers, has developed a site for
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that offers kids a virtual field
trip around the famed lab. The micro-world is accessible via the JPL
website http://virtualfieldtrip.jpl.nasa.gov.
Numedeon, Inc. and JPL are working together to raise and enrich students'
awareness of JPL and space exploration before they take a physical tour of
JPL facilities. JPL's Virtual Field Trip site uses Numedeon's expertise in
engaging young learners, gained through the creation and management of
Whyville.net. This new site is an avatar-based virtual world built on the
same software engine as Whyville.net.
The purpose of the Virtual Field Trip is to familiarize students with some
of JPL's goals, missions, and activities and enhance their actual
"in-house" experience. On the site, a virtual tour guide takes visitors
through the JPL Space Museum, the Mars Exploration Rover Lab and the
exciting Mission Control Center where they play an interactive game
simulating the process of managing and communicating with JPL's many
spacecraft exploring the solar system and beyond. Visitors can also
collect virtual souvenirs of celestial bodies and share them with one
another. In 2006, approximately 15,000 students and teachers from school
districts around Southern California visited the facility.
JPL is a NASA center located in La Canada, California, managed for NASA by
the California Institute of Technology. JPL currently has spacecraft and
instruments spread across the solar system. As a part of NASA's Vision for
Space Exploration, JPL has designed missions to explore the Earth and outer
space along with robotic missions exploring the Moon, Mars and beyond.
"We are very pleased that JPL has decided to use Numedeon's virtual world
technology to provide future visitors an opportunity to explore and
understand JPL's science and missions before visiting the lab itself," said
Dr. James Bower, CEO of Numedeon, Inc. Dr. Jennifer Sun, President of
Numedeon, Inc., who coordinated this project, added, "We expect the virtual
field trip will greatly enhance young learners' interest in JPL, as well as
the quality of their experience during their real life field trip. We also
expect that many visitors will return to the virtual site to continue their
experience even after their real life visit."
Numedeon, Inc. is based in Pasadena, California and specializes in the
design of virtual worlds for education and interaction. Approaching 2
million registered users, Numedeon's virtual world for tweens,
Whyville.net, is one of the leading educational sites on the internet.
Whyville.net includes a NASA supported WASA (Whyville Aeronautics and Space
Administration), hosting a number of different activities related to
research activities at JPL. Other sponsors of activities in Whyville
include the J. Paul Getty Trust, Toyota, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institute. In 2006, Whyville received iParenting's award as the best
website for kids, including the designation as best in class for its safety
features. In addition to Whyville, Numedeon also operates a virtual
avatar-based world for medical professionals at the University of Texas
Health Science in San Antonio. The JPL site is the third virtual world
built on Numedeon virtual world technology.
Future plans to expand the site include adding more locations and games for
students to explore.
Visit the virtual field trip on the Internet at: virtualfieldtrip.jpl.nasa.gov.
About Whyville
Whyville (http://www.whyville.net)
is the leading educational virtual world for boys and girls, ages 8 to 15.
For eight years, the site has successfully created an environment that
engages children to learn while having fun. Inside Whyville, "citizens"
learn & play, socialize & recreate, govern & earn, write & design, eat &
dance, and much, much more. Numedeon, Inc., Whyville's parent company,
develops virtual worlds that promote learning through interactivity and
engagement. Numedeon's founders are scientists, who combined research
experience in neuroscience with education expertise from the
internationally recognized Caltech Pre-college Science Initiative to
conceive an innovative way to harness the power of the Internet for the
purpose of engagement and education. In formal education parlance, the
education in Whyville is designed to be hands-on, inquiry-based and
constructivist, embedded within motivational settings among peers.