Developing Hands-on Virtual Reality Science Laboratory Experiences

该项目通过使用虚拟现实（VR）和混合现实（MR）教育技术，创新具有成本效益和可扩展的动手化学和生物化学实验室培训，解决了我国对敏捷和多样化科技劳动力的迫切需求。当理论和实践无缝结合，当多种感官（视觉、听觉和触觉）相互加强以促进长期知识记忆时，学习是最佳的。这一点在传统的动手实验课上表现得最为明显，学生们运用理论概念，进行实验和程序，以一种积极的、有指导的、通常是开放式的方式，用他们的眼睛、耳朵和手来分析数据。不幸的是，这种实践学习经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。学生通常不能自由地犯错误、重做实验、迭代地完善假设或掌握技术。传统实验室的时间安排缺乏灵活性，可能会减少低收入和代表性不足的学生的参与，这些学生经常在学校工作。实验室讲师、行业培训师和研究导师与学生在板凳上的时间有限，这使他们无法纠正学生在学习新技术时犯的最细微的错误。相比之下，虚拟实验室可以设计成更少的资源密集，并允许在虚拟工作台上进行观察的分子基础的直接说明。不幸的是，虚拟实验室缺乏用真实的实验室仪器和工具做真实科学实验的真实触感。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）技术来“虚拟”实际的物理实验室工具，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即时动态可视化与虚拟世界进行交互。本项目将考察这种真实的动手MR实验室提供的额外触觉反馈以及动态分子可视化是否可以提高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、知识获取和长期记忆。该项目将接触到当地中学科学教师及其学生，提供专业发展，并在服务不足的大学和中学测试可扩展的动手MR实验室硬件和软件部署，以解决这些学习者群体中不成比例的科学，技术，工程和数学流失问题。本项目将解决以下学习研究问题：1)MR化学和生物化学实验活动的真实触觉反馈对学生的学习、内在动机和自我效能感的影响程度如何，不同水平的学生对课程内容的实践或理论经验的影响是否显著不同？2)在学生进行“动手”核磁共振实验时，立即向他们展示概念性的图解性动态分子可视化是否对学生在化学和生物化学背景下的学习有任何好处？对于具有不同课程内容实践或理论经验水平的学生，这种效果是否显著不同？研究人员将生产12个用户可选择的动手MR实验室子模块分布在四个学科领域：入门，一般，有机和生物化学。每个子模块的内容和评估将由用户在入门、中级或高级水平上进行选择，从而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成果的影响，其中大多数课程有现有的传统、课外作业或虚拟实验室活动，而其他课程只有讲座。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项目；在MR活动完成之前、期间和之后进行内部控制的前/中/后/实时评估；在线学生调查；并且，对于传统的实验课程，当动手MR实验被用作实验前活动时，实际实验活动的完成时间或数据质量。评估的结果将告知背景和学生群体，动手磁共振实验室和实时动态分子可视化应该成为目标和进一步发展。该项目将使跨学科的互联网规模的实际MR调查成为可能。该项目的可交付成果还将包括硬件、软件、工作流程和专业开发工具，以实现在其他学科和教育环境中分布式和可扩展地创建类似的“动手”MR实验室。该项目的成果将有助于大学和高中学生大规模发展STEM劳动力。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.