Using VR in Adaptive Teaching the Optimal Use of Water and Energy to Children

As global population growth and technological advancements increase the demand for natural resources, the optimal use of water and energy is becoming essential, especially as these resources face overconsumption and climate change-related scarcity. Educating children about resource conservation is critical for fostering environmental awareness in future generations. In response, we developed a game-based learning environment that uses Virtual Reality (VR) and adaptive learning algorithms to teach children aged 7–9 about water and energy conservation. Sixteen children (8 boys and 8 girls) participated in two --15-minute VR sessions on separate days. Between these sessions, participants received a --5-minute interactive lesson with the TABAN2 social robot, designed to reinforce key conservation concepts. Our analysis showed no significant differences in performance between boys and girls. However, participants demonstrated marked improvement from the first to the second VR session: they completed levels more quickly, answered more questions correctly, and required less assistance, as shown by significant t-test results <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(\mathrm{p} &lt; 0.05)$</tex>. These findings suggest that combining VR with adaptive learning and social robotics can enhance learning outcomes and motivate young learners to engage in conservation education.