The Team

Project Manager

Stephen Xootfly (Stephen Gasior)

Stephen Xootfly in Second Life (OSGrid, Kitely, and Science Circle Grid) started teaching nonmajors biology in the summer of 2010. He followed up that semester by teaching it again in Summer of 2011 and Spring 2012.

Then moving to Ball State in Muncie, IN he worked with the IDIA Labs to support their REDgrid and also teach Honors Biology in a hybrid model in Second Life and Opensimulator.

Also at Ball State, he worked with avatar Kim Anubis to develop a John Snow inspired Virtual Epidemiology learning activity for Opensimulator.

Stephen delivers science lectures in Second LIfe regularly for the Science Circle and in June 2022 was elected to their board.

I have created or helped create several activities to support the lecture material in my class.

*Population Genetics and Selection activity -see PGS Script

*user manipulated chemistry objects

*a bunny pedigree analysis using Ozimals bunnies

*Animal Poster Board templates and lesson guidelines.

*Mitosis and Meiosis objects -see chromosome shuffler script

*At UNO's Instruction Media department, I have created several video tutorials that are at my YouTube Channel

Nova Archaeology Gridmaster

Nova Saunders (Marion Smeltzer) In real life I am a graduate student enrolled at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and President of Indiana County Archeology Society. My passion is to educate and promote the aspects of applied archaeology in terms and visuals that can be utilized by both the class room environments and the general public. I have been privileged to be able to present my archaeological investigation renditions at PA state Social and Science teacher’s conferences and other organizations that shared a mutual interest in Virtual Education.Currently working with the Leica 3D Scanstation to create virtual landscapes for historic sites and structures .The Leica Scanstation C10, is a pulsed scanner in compact form, which can take 3-D scans of areas of interest in panorama or topographic views. The scans can provide important information about environmental factors that have caused damage to preexisting sites and aid in future preservation methods.

Genome Island and Genetics Gridmaster

Max Chatnoir (Mary Anne Clark)

Max Chatnoir is the nom de grid of Mary Anne Clark, Professor of Biology at Texas Wesleyan University. Email: mclark@txwes.edu Max is the creator of Genome Island on Second Life and has taught a nonmajors genetics class there since 2008. The course content is fully on line, with in-world content on Genome Island and a Blackboard gateway for assignments and exams. On Second Life, Genome Island is public access and anybody is welcome to bring classes there. However, to facilitate access to these activities for younger students, Max is considering other virtual worlds, including the VIBE Hypergrid. Mendel's Garden Path was beta tested recently by the freshman biology class at Texas Wesleyan. Please consider exploring the Genome Islands of the Hypergrid and bringing your own students. A detailed list of the activities on the Genome grid can be seen here: The Genome Islands at VIBE

Genome Island is now hosted on the Science Circle Opensim Grid.

Greenwood Forest Earth Systems Science Gridmaster

Clowey Greenwood or Clowey Questi (Carolyn Lowe)

In “real life” (I prefer the term "the physical world"), after retiring as an associate professor, I returned to teaching biology and anatomy at Putnam City High School in Oklahoma City and also teaching the science portion of the OSU-OKC Upward Bound program.

Prior to my first retirement, I was a science educator at Northern Michigan University in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan where I taught a variety of courses including life sciences and teaching methods for undergraduates as well as a wide variety of courses for the Masters of Science Education program.

My virtual world life began in 2007 when I was introduced to Second Life by a NASA educator. For several years I was the manager of NMU's Biome and Biome II in Second Life (regions that no longer exist) where I taught both graduate and undergraduate courses. However, I am still found in Second Life as a tiny animal (but not a pet or a baby) avatar called Clowey Greenwood (bottom left picture). If you show up, send me a "hi" IM and tell me who you are.

Currently I am building the educational science activities on the Kitely Grid (http://kitely.com) where anyone can come either as a class or as individuals to learn about life and earth science. The region is named Greenwood Forest and is ginormous with a multitude of places to visit. My avatars on Kitely are Clowey Greenwood (as in Second Life) and Clowey Questi (who is online more than Clowey Greenwood) and are most often tiny cats but sometimes are human (top two left pictures). Greenwood Forest is built around the concepts of Earth Systems Science; Biome (for biosphere), Hydrosphere, and Geosphere.

There is also a very large building area with a 2 hour return. Make sure you give your objects a name before they are returned. You can then take them out of inventory and not have them named "object."

To visit me on Kitely you will need an open-sim avatar. You can either make one there or come from one of the other grids. See me in the virtual worlds, Second Life, Kitely or email me at drclowe@gmail.com for more information.

Africa Traveler/3D Teams Gridmaster

Rachel Gloedu (Rachel Umoren)

Rachel Umoren (SL Gloedu) is a pediatrician and researcher in medical education. Her current research interests are in global health curricula and educational outcomes of global health experiences.

The Global Health Traveler Activity on the Global Health Grid was developed in order to explore the potential of virtual worlds for global health education.

For more information, go to GlobalHealth3D Grid