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，解决了我们国家对敏捷和多样化的科学技术劳动力的迫切需求。当理论与实践无缝集成并且多种感官（视觉、声音和触觉）相互增强以促进长期知识保留时，学习就会得到优化。这一点在传统的动手实验室课程中尤为明显，在这些课程中，学生应用理论概念，进行实验和程序，并使用他们的眼睛，耳朵和双手以积极，指导和开放的方式分析数据。不幸的是，这种动手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。学生往往不能自由地犯错误，重做实验，反复完善假设或掌握技术。传统实验室缺乏时间安排的灵活性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。实验室教师，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所犯的最细微的错误。相比之下，虚拟实验室的设计可以减少资源密集型，并允许在虚拟工作台上进行观察的分子基础的即时说明。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）技术来“虚拟化”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纵，同时与虚拟世界进行实时反馈和实时动态可视化。该项目将研究这种真实的动手MR实验室提供的触觉反馈的额外水平以及动态分子可视化是否可以提高学生的内在动机，参与度，自我效能感，知识获取以及本科化学和生物化学课程的长期保留。该项目将接触当地中学科学教师及其学生，提供专业发展，并测试可扩展的动手MR实验室硬件和软件部署到服务不足的大学和中学，解决这些学习者群体中科学，技术，工程和数学不成比例的突出问题。该项目将解决以下学习研究问题：1）MR化学和生物化学实验室活动的真实触觉反馈在多大程度上影响学生的学习，内在动机和自我效能感，并且对于具有不同课程内容的实际或理论经验的学生来说，效果是否显著不同？2)在化学和生物化学的背景下，当学生进行“动手”MR实验时，立即向他们展示概念上说明性的动态分子可视化是否为学生的学习提供任何优势，并且对于具有不同实际或理论经验的学生来说，这种效果是否显着不同？研究人员将制作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：介绍，一般，有机和生物化学。每个子模块中的内容和评估将是用户可选择的入门级，中级或高级水平，从而可以检查每个子模块在多个课程中的影响。将评估十门不同课程对学生学习成果的影响，其中大部分课程都有现有的传统、带回家或虚拟实验室活动，而其他课程则是纯讲座课程。形成性评估将包括：嵌入课堂测验和测试中的标准化和经验证的项目;在MR活动完成之前、期间和之后进行的内部控制的预/中/后/实时评估;在线学生调查;以及对于传统实验室课程，当动手MR实验室用作实验前活动时，真实的实验室活动的完成时间或数据质量。评估结果将告知背景和学生群体，应针对哪些动手MR实验室和及时动态分子可视化进行目标定位和进一步开发。该项目将使互联网规模的动手MR跨学科的调查。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创建类似的“动手”MR实验室的分布式和可扩展性。该项目的成果将有助于大学和高中学生的STEM劳动力发展。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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.