The DU Department of Physics and Astronomy is playing with a new way of teaching that will enable future generations to have access to nuclear energy training.
Robert Amme, research professor, and Jeffrey Corbin, research associate and media specialist, are planning to implement 12 virtual courses, including labs on the interactive 3-D social network called Second Life.
DU is one of the first universities in Colorado to implement Second Life for educational purposes.
Amme and Corbin began the project in 2006 and hope to start offering virtual courses by winter quarter. They have received little funding from DU on the project.
“It has been almost all out of pocket,” said Corbin. They have also received a grant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to help fund their work.
“Second Life has a tremendous potential for education,” said Amme. He said most people who are studying nuclear energy are not located on this campus.
This will provide a way to give them access to real data about radioactive elements through the computer.
Second Life, which was launched in 2003 by Linden Research Inc., is a 3D virtual world on the Internet where users log on and create an avatar, or alter ego that represents the player.
Through this avatar, players are able to interact, explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade items and services with one another.
It almost appears as a computer game, however the interactions are “virtually real” and some people make their entire living off interactions through Second Life.
Inside the virtual globe, DU is part of a group of islands called SciLands Virtual Continent.
On these islands Amme and Corbin have recreated a virtual DU campus.
It is here that students will be able to take classes, complete laboratories, and explore content that would be impossible to do in real life, such as explore the inside of a nuclear energy power plant.
According to the professors, the hands-on research and investigation into nuclear energy that the students will get through the new program will be beneficial due to the growing importance of nuclear energy in the United States.
“We believe nuclear energy must play a major role in energy consumption for the United States in the future,” said Amme.
As of now, it is the only form of energy that is able to work 24 hours a day unlike wind power, and not give out Carbon Dioxide like coal.
also is able to produce almost 1,066 times more megawatts of energy than wind power can.
Amme said that the public misconceptions on the danger of nuclear energy are the reasons it is not the major source of power right now.
For the last 30 years, 20% of United States’ energy has come from carbon free nuclear power.
“Nobody has ever died from American commercial nuclear power plants,” said Amme, “more people have died from wind turbine blades.”
Through Second Life, students will be trained in courses such as environmental impact assessments for nuclear related projects, and actually get to explore the parts of a nuclear power plant.
This will allow the next generation to be more prepared for when nuclear energy becomes a prevalent source of energy production in the United States.
