Developing Hands-on Virtual Reality Science Laboratory Experiences

该项目利用虚拟现实(VR)和混合现实(MR)教育技术，通过创新具有成本效益且可扩展的动手化学和生化实验室培训，满足了我国对灵活和多样化的科学技术劳动力的迫切需求。当理论和实践无缝结合，当多种感官(视觉、声音和触觉)相互加强以促进长期知识记忆时，学习就会得到优化。这一点在传统的动手实验室课堂上表现得最为明显，在课堂上，学生应用理论概念，进行实验和程序，并用眼睛、耳朵和手以一种积极的、有指导的、通常是开放式的方式分析数据。不幸的是，这种实践学习体验是高度资源密集型的，因此在许多方面受到严重限制。危险、漫长、复杂或昂贵的实验往往很难提供。学生往往不能随意犯错、重做实验、反复完善假设或掌握技术。传统实验室缺乏时间表的灵活性，可能会减少低收入和代表性不足的学生的参与，他们经常在学校工作。实验室讲师、行业培训师和研究导师与学生坐在一起的时间有限，使他们无法纠正学生在学习新技术时犯下的最细微的错误类型。相比之下，虚拟实验室可以被设计成不那么资源密集型的，并允许立即说明在虚拟实验台上进行观察的分子基础。不幸的是，虚拟实验室缺乏用真实的实验室仪器和工具进行真实的科学实验的真实触觉。在这个项目中，研究人员将使用新兴的高分辨率主动和被动光学运动跟踪、3D打印和混合现实(MR)技术，将实际的物理实验室工具“虚拟化”，这些工具可以由用户以完全自然的方式持有和操作，同时通过实时反馈和实时动态可视化与虚拟世界交互。这个项目将考察由这种真实的动手MR实验室提供的额外水平的触觉反馈以及动态的分子可视化是否可以改善学生在本科化学和生物化学课程中的内在动机、参与度、自我效能、知识获取和长期保持。该项目将接触到当地中学的科学教师和他们的学生，提供专业发展，并测试可扩展地将动手MR实验室硬件和软件部署到服务不足的大学和中学，以解决这些学习者群体中不成比例的科学、技术、工程和数学自然减员的突出问题。本项目将解决以下学习研究问题：1)MR化学和生化实验室活动的真实触觉反馈对学生学习、内在动机和自我效能的影响程度如何？对于对课程内容具有不同实际或理论经验的学生来说，这些影响是否显著不同？2)在学生进行“动手”磁共振实验时，立即呈现给他们的概念上具有说明性的动态分子可视化对学生在化学和生物化学背景下的学习有任何优势吗？对于对课程内容具有不同实际或理论经验的学生来说，这种影响是否显著不同？研究人员将制作12个用户可选择的动手MR实验子模块，分布在四个学科领域：入门、普通、有机化学和生物化学。每个子模块中的内容和评估将在入门、中级或高级级别由用户选择，因此可以在多个课程中检查每个子模块的影响。将评估十门不同课程对学生学习结果的影响，其中大多数课程具有现有的传统、带回家或虚拟实验室活动，而其他课程仅限于授课。形成性评估将包括：课堂测验和测试中嵌入的标准化和验证性项目；在MR活动完成之前、期间和之后进行的内部控制的前/中/后/实时评估；在线学生调查；以及对于传统实验室课程，当实际操作MR实验室用作实验前活动时，实际实验活动达到的完成时间或数据质量。评估结果将告知实际操作的磁共振实验室和实时动态分子可视化应该针对的环境和学生群体，并进一步发展。该项目将使跨学科的互联网规模的磁共振调查成为可能。该项目的成果还将包括所需的硬件、软件、工作流程和专业开发工具，以便能够在其他学科和教育环境中以分布式和可扩展的方式创建类似的“动手”MR实验室。该项目的成果将有助于在大学生和高中生中大规模发展STEM劳动力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project addresses our nation's urgent need for an agile and diverse science and technology workforce by innovating cost-effective and scalable hands-on chemistry and biochemistry laboratory training using virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) educational technologies. Learning is optimized when theory and practice are seamlessly integrated and when multiple senses (sight, sound, and touch) reinforce each other to promote long-term knowledge retention. Nowhere is this more evident than in traditional hands-on laboratory classes where students apply theoretical concepts, carry out experiments and procedures, and analyze data in an active, guided, and often open-ended manner using their eyes, ears, and hands. Unfortunately, such hands-on learning experiences are highly resource intensive and thus are severely limited in a number of ways. Dangerous, long, complicated, or expensive experiments are often difficult to offer. Students are often not free to make mistakes, redo experiments, iteratively refine hypotheses or master techniques. Lack of scheduling flexibility in traditional labs can reduce participation by low-income and underrepresented students who often work while in school. Lab instructors, industry trainers, and research mentors have limited time with students at the bench preventing them from being able to correct the most nuanced types of mistakes that students make when learning new techniques. Virtual labs, in contrast, can be designed to be less resource-intensive and allow the immediate illustration of the molecular basis for observations made at the virtual bench. Unfortunately, virtual labs lack the authentic tactile feel of doing real science experiments with real laboratory instruments and tools. In this project, researchers will use emerging high-resolution active and passive optical motion-tracking, 3D printing, and mixed reality (MR) technologies to "virtualize" actual physical lab tools that can be held and manipulated by a user in a completely naturalistic manner while interacting with the virtual world with real-time feedback and just-in-time dynamic visualizations. This project will examine whether the additional level of tactile feedback offered by such authentic hands-on MR labs together with dynamic molecular visualizations can improve student intrinsic motivation, engagement, self-efficacy, knowledge acquisition, and long-term retention in undergraduate chemistry and biochemistry courses. The project will reach out to local secondary school science teachers and their students, offer professional development, and test the scalable deployment of hands-on MR lab hardware and software to underserved universities and secondary schools, addressing the outstanding problem of disproportionate science, technology, engineering and mathematics attrition amongst these groups of learners.This project will address the following learning research questions: 1) To what extent does authentic tactile sensory feedback of MR chemistry and biochemistry lab activities impact student learning, intrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy, and are the effects significantly different for students with different incoming levels of practical or theoretical experience with course content? 2) Do conceptually illustrative dynamic molecular visualizations presented to students immediately as they are performing "hands-on" MR experiments afford any advantages for student learning within the context of chemistry and biochemistry, and are such effects significantly different for students with different incoming levels of practical or theoretical experience with course content? Researchers will produce twelve user-selectable hands-on MR lab sub-modules distributed across four subject areas: introductory, general, organic, and biological chemistry. The content and assessments in each submodule will be user-selectable at either an introductory, intermediate, or advanced level, making it possible to examine the impact of each sub-module within multiple courses. Impact on student learning outcomes in ten different courses, most of which have existing traditional, take-home, or virtual lab activities while others are lecture-only courses, will be assessed. Formative assessments will include: standardized and validated items embedded within class quizzes and tests; internally controlled pre/mid/post/real-time assessments administered before, during, and after completion of the MR activities; online student surveys; and, for traditional lab courses, the time-to-completion or data quality achieved for real lab activities when the hands-on MR labs are used as a pre-lab activity. Results from the assessments will inform the contexts and student populations for which hands-on MR labs and just in-time dynamic molecular visualizations should be targeted and further developed. This project will enable internet-scale hands-on MR investigations across disciplines. The deliverables of the project will also include the hardware, software, workflows, and professional development tools required to enable the distributed and scalable creation of analogous "hands-on" MR labs in other disciplines and educational settings. The outcomes of this project will contribute to STEM workforce development among college and high school students at scale.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.