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Background
Developers
Alien Rescue is a designed-based research and development project. Each iteration of its development is guided by learning theories, field-testing results, and research findings. The goal is to continuously improve the program to support students’ learning and incorporate lessons learned from classroom implementations into the program.
Alien Rescue (version 1.5) was designed and developed at the University of Texas at Austin. Contributing institutes include the Instructional Technology Program in the College of Education, McDonald Observatory and the Institute for Technology and Learning.
Alien Rescue (version 2.1) was a collaboration among the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and Texas A&M University.
Given the extensive field-testing results of v2.1, Alien Rescue version 3.0 is redesigned and developed at the University of Texas at Austin to remove the technical glitches, make the program more stable and robust, and incorporate research findings that have been shown to be helpful to the students.
Primary contact for the development team: Dr. Min Liu at the University of Texas at Austin
Funding Agencies
Alien Rescue is partially funded by several units at the University of Texas at Austin including the Divison of Instructional Innovation and Assessment, College of Education, University Research Institute grants, and the Charles A. Dana Center; and also by Texas Space Grant Consortium, American Honda Foundation, Dell Foundation, NASA Space Telescope Science Institute, Tyco Foundation, Verizon Foundation, GTE Foundation, and Motorola Foundation.
Most importantly, many students and faculty have contributed their time and expertise to the creation of Alien Rescue at different stages.
Schools Using Alien Rescue
Students in different schools from the following states and countries are using Alien Rescue:
- California
- Colorado
- Illinois
- Iowa
- Michigan
- New York
- North Carolina
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Washington
- Wisconsin
- Australia
- Singapore
