Work-in-Progress—A Learning Experience Design for Immersive Virtual Reality in Physics Classrooms (original) (raw)
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American Journal of Physics, 2010
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The use of Virtual Reality (VR) in education has been depicted as an interesting and promising area where constructivist learning theory can be put into practice. This paper describes a work-in-progress project attempting to take advantage of the current VR technology for constructivist learning practices in the teaching of secondary school Physics. The project involves the creation of 3D VR environments for use on the World Wide Web where learners are exposed to virtual physical environments. These environments incorporate rich and meaningful physical phenomena and relationships so that learners can navigate and explore freely, view from different perspectives and visualize the various physical concepts and relationships which otherwise can be difficult to visualize using traditional teaching material in the form of texts and graphics. This paper also discusses the initial reactions from learners as well as colleagues teaching on the subject.
Journal of Science Education and Technology, 2021
The integration of immersive virtual reality (VR) in authentic science classrooms can result in a totally new learning experience for the students. However, the effect of such a learning experience on students' conceptual learning gains and their perceptions of the experience, while considering students' pre-existing science-and digital technologies-related attitudinal profiles, has not been explored to date. In this study, we have enacted a 90-min technology-enhanced inquiry-based intervention with high-school students (n = 107), on the topic of the Special Theory of Relativity in a Physics course, using a learning experience design, structured around an immersive VR simulation. Firstly, we aimed at examining students' attitudinal profiles and, secondly, at exploring the potential differences of those profiles in relation to conceptual learning gains and perceptions of the learning experience. A clustering analysis has revealed two attitudinal profiles: the low-attitudes profile (n = 48) included students with low science-and digital technologiesrelated attitudes, and the opposite for the high-attitudes profile (n = 59). Results from a 2 × 2 RM ANOVA indicated a statistically significant interaction between conceptual learning gains and attitudinal profiles. In addition, a one-way MANOVA test showed statistically significant differences between the two profiles in relation to students' perceptions of the learning experience, with the students of the high-attitude profile outperforming their counterparts. We discuss our findings, focusing on the implications of students' individual differences in learning and attitudes linked to the integration of immersive VR in inquiry-based instruction.
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Designing learning scenarios for a 3D virtual environment: The case of special relativity
Special Relativity, as introduced by Einstein, is regarded as one of the most important revolutions in the history of physics. Nevertheless, the observation of direct outcomes of this theory on mundane objects is impossible because they can only be witnessed when travelling at relative speeds approaching the light velocity c. These effects are so counterintuitive and contradicting with our daily understanding of space and time that physics students find it hard to learn special relativity beyond mathematical equations and to understand the deep implications of the theory. Although we cannot travel at the speed of light, Virtual Reality (VR) makes it possible to experiment the effects of relativity in a 3D immersive environment (a CAVE: Cave Automatic Virtual Environment). The use of the immersive environment is underpinned by the development of dedicated learning scenarios created through a dialectic between VR-related computational constraints and cognitive constraints that include...
Associating nonimmersive virtual reality and cognitive tools for Physics Teaching
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This article describes the development of a computer system for Physics education in high school elaborated by a multidisciplinary team (Electric Engineering, Physics, Education and Visual Arts).For development of this software it was elaborated a pedagogical design based on principles of meaningful learning, including techniques of Virtual Reality that allow to the interaction with simulation of physical experiments and the design of layouts, that contemplates the currently visual trends.
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"Abstract Special Relativity, as introduced by Einstein, is regarded as one of the most important revolutions in the history of physics. Nevertheless, the observation of direct outcomes of this theory on mundane objects is impossible because they can only be witnessed when travelling at relative speeds approaching the light velocity c. These effects are so counterintuitive and contradicting with our daily understanding of space and time that physics students find it hard to learn special relativity beyond mathematical equations and to understand the deep implications of the theory. Although we cannot travel at the speed of light, Virtual Reality (VR) makes it possible to experiment the effects of relativity in a 3D immersive environment (a CAVE: Cave Automatic Virtual Environment). The use of the immersive environment is underpinned by the development of dedicated learning scenarios created through a dialectic between VR-related computational constraints and cognitive constraints that include students’ difficulties. Investigating student’s understanding of relativistic situations (that involve relative speeds close to c) led to the typifying of a cognitive profile that governed the situations to be implemented into the CAVE and the associated learning scenarios. Keywords: Student’s difficulties in special relativity, 3D immersive environment, event, reference frame. "
Understanding physical concepts using an immersive virtual learning environment
Understanding basic physical concepts is not an easy task. The Technology Enabled Active Learning Approach (TEAL) is an innovative learning approach and successfully improves the conceptual understanding in teaching freshmen physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This approach requires specially designed classrooms, hands-on experiments, different teaching methods and also virtual visualizations and simulations to enhance the student's engagement and learning success. The Java-based open-source framework TEALsim was especially designed to support the students understanding of different physical procedures using visualizations and simulations of physical concepts such as Faraday's Law. But not every institution or university is able to use the TEAL scenario because of the high expense in terms of required equipment. Also the distance learning idea is lost. Existing learning spaces are limited regarding time and space. Depending on the learning scope and application domain conventional E-learning tools are not always the best choice. Especially such abstract domains as physics are hard to teach without advanced tools. Drawbacks such as the lack of immersion and the lack of communication and collaboration possibilities suggest the introduction of a new e-learning tool, the Virtual 3D World. This paper focuses on the technical aspects of the implementation of TEALsim in the Virtual 3D World Environment Open Wonderland. This collaboration between the CECI at MIT and AEMT group at TU-Graz introduces a first potential scenario of in-world physics simulations. The Open Wonderland solution in particular supports collaborative learning settings, and enables students to have pedagogical valuable discussions about the material being learned.
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