Second Life: A Great Place to Teach Math and Science

My first degree was in mathematics. I taught math and science classes while still in college. And though I've been a technical writer for some time now, I still love math and use it constantly.

So when I discovered the virtual world known as Second Life ("SL") I quickly taught myself how to build virtual objects there. Building in Second Life is a very mathematical process. Everything is made from "prims" (short for "primitives")...or in English, from spheres, cubes, cones, cylinders, toruses, tubes, and other shapes.

But it only recently dawned on me that Second Life would be a great place to teach math, science, and especially geometry...in a way that grabs students' interest, actively involves them, and fires their imaginations. In a way, in fact, that most books and blackboard sessions cannot match.

I first realized this while constructing a huge virtual building for an SL client. I was standing inside one of its large cylindrical support columns, when I accidentally tipped the roof panel above my avatar's head. The geometric fact that a plane intersects a cylinder in a circle or ellipse became immediately apparent. I saw how the ellipse morphed as the angle of the plane increased, and how the intersection became two parallel lines, one line, or no intersection at all, if the plane was parallel to the cylinder's axis.

Fascinated, I continued experimenting with the intersections of planes and toruses, planes and cubes, toruses and toruses, toruses and cubes, and with many other combinations of shapes. I could clearly see the geometries involved because I was standing directly under or inside them...and could change the objects' sizes and positions in real time.

Second Life objects also can be made to exhibit behaviors and respond to external events (like being touched or walked on). This is done with a C++-like scripting language called the Linden Scripting Language (or "LSL"). It offers intriguing ways to demonstrate math concepts, including:

• Dynamically changing the way geometric shapes are cut and deformed.

• "Morphing" shapes, such as changing spheres to cubes, cylinders, or toruses. Some of these shapes can be "flexi prims," which bend under script control or respond to virtual wind, gravity, and movement. For some great geometric examples of this, check this out: www.nandnerd.info/flexihedra.php.

• Creating simulations of math concepts that teachers and students can launch and affect through touch, and can walk (or fly) within to see what's happening "from the inside." You can view some YouTube movies of Second Life simulations by searching for the phrase "Second Life" (in quotes) plus the word simulation. Or just click here to call up that search: www.youtube.com/results.

Second Life, in fact, may offer the easiest, least expensive, and most involving exposure that students can have to 3D design and construction principles. Just building a virtual house may require the precise application of 3D coordinate systems, angles, displacements, alignments, and (gasp) trigonometry.

And once students become familiar with SL building, they (like me) will probably develop their own virtual tools for making 3D construction simpler and more precise. Such analytical skills are important in both scientific and industrial-design disciplines.

So yes, your school could follow the lead of many others, and let students build a virtual replica of their campus. But first, look into using virtual learning activities and "manipulatives" to directly support your math and science curriculum!