Professor Mina C. Johnson-Glenberg from Arizona State University is both an entrepreneur and a Research Professor. She has founded, or co-founded, three edu-tech companies with the help of multiple Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants and the Gates Foundation. She is a cognitive psychologist who has been the Principal Investigator, or co-PI, on over a dozen grants (the majority from the National Science Foundation (NSF)). Her Embodied Games XR Lab creates and assesses the efficacy of original, innovative and embodied STEM education simulations and games. Her team has created many award-winning XR pieces of content - eXtended Realities - the spectrum that includes augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) and virtual reality (VR).
She is currently working on STEM content for lifelong learners using state-of-the-art motion capture technologies that mesh best pedagogical principles with learners' gestures and action. Two studies are running on a whole body locomotion physics education app called motion visualizer (Vierya’s Physics Toolbox Suite). With an NSF NAIRR grant, the lab is working to embed a bespoke AI tutor that scaffolds learning about graph-making in a Socratic manner. (P.S. It is not going well because LLMs are not very embodied!) The team has just finished a Mixed Reality experience (NSF AISL) called "Being Water"; this large screen interactive game will travel to multiple science centers and museums. A recent embodied design principles for XR article is here. In the VR and STEM arena, she and her students helped to uncover the positive effects of action and embodiment on learning while in a VR headset - Platform is not Destiny. Another MR experience for chemistry education revealed a significant prior knowledge by platform interaction - see Frontiers . Some of the older games can be played for free at https://www.embodied-games.com/games/.
