STTR Phase I: Integration of Virtual Reality-based 3-D interactive simulations into classroom and online science curricula

这个小企业技术转移研究（STTR）第一阶段项目的重点是通过将基于虚拟现实（VR）的交互式3D模拟集成到K-12和高等教育的入门物理课程中，开发创新的教学技术平台。这种方法将通过为学生提供独特的可能性来支持学习过程，让他们在VR生成的“现实”和“人造”世界中进行互动和探索他们的假设，从而使学生能够以全新的方式“体验”他们正在学习的内容。拟议的基于VR的3-D课件将包括丰富的教育功能强大的动态视觉表示（高质量的“现实”对象，力和速度等概念的可视化，肉眼不可见的过程和事物的可视化，专注于核心概念（例如突出显示，放大，删除不相关的方面），实时图形工具等），并且允许参数设置中的实时交互和高度灵活性。为了促进心理模型构建和与真实的世界情境的连接，虚拟环境将以各种程度的抽象和现实呈现，从非常脱离情境的设置到具有参与虚拟活动的化身（人形角色）的现实设置。目前，还没有商业上可用的VR系统部署在K-12或大学教育中的常规教学使用。在教育中应用基于虚拟现实的虚拟环境是立即实用和成本效益的一个非常大的市场的学生和教师。拟议项目的主要影响是使用VR环境结合真实的实验或作为基于网络（在线）部署的独立虚拟实验室课件，作为执行个人和协作任务的工具，在科学教育中创建高质量，负担得起和广泛访问的基于虚拟实验室的课件。开发的模块不仅可以通过沉浸式VR系统访问，还可以通过负担得起的桌面3D VR系统访问，以及通过Web访问界面访问。透过低成本的标准虚拟实境工具，以及使用标准计算机作日常教室用途，发展学校系统在经济上负担得起的有效模块式课程，将可扩阔未被充分代表的群体的参与，从而缩小数码隔膜。我们提出的创新教学技术方法和可视化工具的潜在成果也将影响，通过推广，其他教育领域的互动视觉显示是至关重要的，帮助学生发展他们的认知和社交技能。

This Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Phase I project focuses on the development of an innovative instructional technology platform by integrating Virtual Reality (VR)-based interactive 3-D simulations into introductory physics curriculum for K-12 and higher education. This approach will support the learning process by providing unique possibility for students to interact and explore their hypotheses in VR-generated 'realistic' and 'artificial' worlds, thus making it possible for students to 'experience' what they are learning in an entirely new way. The proposed VR-based 3-D courseware will include a wealth of educationally-powerful dynamic visual representations (high-quality 'realistic' objects, visualization of concepts such as forces and velocities, visualization of processes and things invisible to the naked eye, focusing on core-concepts (e.g. highlighting, magnifying, removing irrelevant aspects), a real-time graphing tool, etc.), and allow for real-time interaction and high flexibility in parameter settings. To foster mental model construction and connection with real world situations, the virtual environments will be presented with a various degree of abstraction and realism, from a very de-contextualized setting to a realistic setting with avatars (human-form characters) involved in virtual activities. Currently, there are no commercially available VR systems deployed for regular instructional use in K-12 or university education. Applications of curriculum-based virtual environments in education are immediately practical and cost effective for a very large market of students and teachers. The main impact of the proposed project is the creation of a high-quality, affordable and widely accessible curriculum-based courseware in science education using VR environments in combination with real experiments or as a stand-alone virtual laboratory courseware for web-based (online) deployment as a tool to perform individual and collaborative tasks. The developed modules will be accessible not only through immersive VR systems, but also through affordable desktop 3-D VR systems, as well as a through a Web-accessible interface. The development of effective modular courseware being economically affordable by school systems via low-cost standard VR tools and the use of standard computers for daily classroom use will reduce digital divide through broadening the participation of underrepresented groups. The potential outcomes of our proposed innovative instructional technology approach and visualization tools will also impact, through generalization, other educational domains where interactive visual display is crucial in helping students to develop their cognitive and social skills.