SBIR Phase II: A Virtual-Reality Next-Generation Introductory STEM Platform

SBIR 第二阶段：虚拟现实下一代入门 STEM 平台

• 批准号: 2026138
• 负责人: John Ruiz
• 金额: $ 99.38万
• 依托单位: NOT SUSPICIOUS, LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-06-15 至 2024-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2026138&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Virtual; Reality

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to improve middle school Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education. The project will create a whole-classroom virtual reality (VR) experience for middle school students to be exposed to topics interactively as a supplement to the existing curriculum. While immersed in their very own 3D virtual treehouse lab, students will be able to join other student labs and collaboratively explore a variety of scientific concepts. This is facilitated by a teacher-oriented desktop and VR interface that makes it possible to manage an entire class of students simultaneously participating in VR activities. By leveraging the use of affordable standalone VR headsets, and elevating VR beyond its current one-student-at-a-time use case, the project will help launch virtual field trips for use in authentic learning environments. This SBIR Phase II project will develop an immersive multiplayer virtual reality (VR) learning game for authentic classroom usage. The project will apply the advantages of a modular game design built around self-directed goals to test a classroom-management system built to allow an entire class of students to collaborate in or outside virtual reality. While immersed in individual 3D virtual environments, students will be able to join virtual spaces belonging to other students in order to accomplish shared goals set by the teacher at a class level. The project also seeks to further the general field of learning games, by applying the Universal Design for Learning framework to its local goal of enhancing middle-schoolers' relationships to and content knowledge of STEM topics. This permits the project to be a test-bed for educational VR content design and interaction schemes.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.

该小企业创新研究 (SBIR) 第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是改善中学科学、技术、工程和数学 (STEM) 教育。 该项目将为中学生创造一个全课堂虚拟现实（VR）体验，让他们以交互方式接触主题，作为现有课程的补充。当学生沉浸在自己的 3D 虚拟树屋实验室中时，他们将能够加入其他学生实验室并协作探索各种科学概念。面向教师的桌面和 VR 界面促进了这一点，使管理全班学生同时参与 VR 活动成为可能。通过利用经济实惠的独立 VR 耳机，并将 VR 提升到当前一次一个学生的用例之外，该项目将有助于启动虚拟实地考察，以在真实的学习环境中使用。该 SBIR 第二阶段项目将开发一款沉浸式多人虚拟现实 (VR) 学习游戏，供真实的课堂使用。该项目将应用围绕自我导向目标构建的模块化游戏设计的优势来测试课堂管理系统，该系统旨在允许全班学生在虚拟现实内外进行协作。当沉浸在个人 3D 虚拟环境中时，学生将能够加入属于其他学生的虚拟空间，以实现教师在班级层面设定的共同目标。该项目还寻求通过将通用学习设计框架应用于增强中学生与 STEM 主题的关系和内容知识的本地目标，进一步推进学习游戏的一般领域。这使得该项目成为教育 VR 内容设计和交互方案的试验台。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。