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Virtual Access to STEM Careers (VASC) is a technology-rich, inquiry and problem-based curriculum designed to expose and stimulate student interest in marine, environmental, computer, and geological sciences. Intended for 3rd through 5th grade students, VASC builds academic momentum at the intermediate level to prepare students for STEM opportunities later in middle school and high school. Our program is aligned with “Next Generation Science Standards” and “Common Core State Standards” and immerses students in rigorous, high-interest learning modules where students are introduced to and take on the roles of different STEM occupations. We are specifically developing and testing virtual reality-based modules that place students in a coastal environment where they learn about the sea turtle life-cycle. Students also practice the types of measurements and conservation tasks that park rangers and marine scientists regularly perform. The investigations focused on the design of a user interface that meets the needs of students and their teachers. We collected feedback on user interface design and knowledge gained by the users from the simulation. Additionally, we compared two different virtual reality head-mounted displays; i) HTC Vive and ii) Oculus Quest 2, to identify the pros and cons of each technology in future classroom settings. Our investigations yielded valuable information about how instructions should be presented to users, how the interface should provide immediate feedback for user error, how surveys should be administered, what equipment is most efficient for transporting and setting up large scale experiments in schools, and what types of interactions students and teachers want to experience in VASC. 

Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) and Flavobacterium psychrophilum are major pathogens of farmed rainbow trout. Improved control strategies are desired but the influence of on-farm environmental factors that lead to disease outbreaks remain poorly understood. Water reuse is an important environmental factor affecting disease. Prior studies have established a replicated outdoor-tank system capable of varying the exposure to reuse water by controlling water flow from commercial trout production raceways. The goal of this research was to evaluate the effect of constant or pulsed reuse water exposure on survival, pathogen prevalence, and pathogen load. Herein, we compared two commercial lines of rainbow trout, Clear Springs Food (CSF) and Troutex (Tx) that were either vaccinated against IHNV with a DNA vaccine or sham vaccinated. Over a 27-day experimental period in constant reuse water, all fish from both lines and treatments, died while mortality in control fish in spring water was <1%. Water reuse exposure, genetic line, vaccination, and the interaction between genetic line and water exposure affected survival ( P <0.05). Compared to all other water sources, fish exposed to constant reuse water had 46- to 710-fold greater risk of death ( P <0.0001). Tx fish had a 2.7-fold greater risk of death compared to CSF fish in constant reuse water ( P ≤ 0.001), while risk of death did not differ in spring water ( P =0.98). Sham-vaccinated fish had 2.1-fold greater risk of death compared to vaccinated fish ( P =0.02). Both IHNV prevalence and load were lower in vaccinated fish compared to sham-vaccinated fish, and unexpectedly, F. psychrophilum load associated with fin/gill tissues from live-sampled fish was lower in vaccinated fish compared to sham-vaccinated fish. As a result, up to forty-five percent of unvaccinated fish were naturally co-infected with F. psychrophilum and IHNV and the coinfected fish exhibited the highest IHNV loads. Under laboratory challenge conditions, co-infection with F. psychrophilum and IHNV overwhelmed IHNV vaccine-induced protection. In summary, we demonstrate that exposure to reuse water or multi-pathogen challenge can initiate complex disease dynamics that can overwhelm both vaccination and host genetic resistance.