Phase II: A multi-user virtual Biology environment for discovery-oriented science

第二阶段：面向发现型科学的多用户虚拟生物学环境

• 批准号: 8232016
• 负责人: Bradley L Vender
• 金额: $ 53.31万
• 依托单位: WOWIWE INSTRUCTION COMPANY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-09-01 至 2014-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8232016
• 关键词: Animals; Area; Award; Awareness; Biological Assay; Biological Process; Biology; Categories; Cells; Cellular biology; Collection; Communities; Computer software; Computers; Controlled Study; Coupled; Development; Diagnosis; Disease; Educational Status; Effectiveness; Environment; Failure; Feedback; Foundations; Funding; Future; Generations; Goals; Gray unit of radiation dose; Health; Health Professional; Human; Human Resources Development; Institutes; Instruction; Internet; Laboratories; Learning; Left; Life; Marketing; Measures; Medical; Methodology; Methods; Metric; Michigan; Mission; Modality; Modeling; Names; National Center for Research Resources; North Dakota; Organelles; Phase; Pilot Projects; Plants; Positioning Attribute; Public Health; Research; Research Infrastructure; Research Personnel; Resources; Schools; Science; Scientist; Secondary Schools; Series; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Software Tools; Speed; Stream; Structure; Students; Surveys; System; Technology; Test Result; Testing; Training; United States National Institutes of Health; Universities; Work; Youth; animation; base; beneficiary; career; college; demographics; design; e-commerce; falls; improved; innovation; instrument; interest; literate; prevent; prototype; public health relevance; research study; science education; simulation; virtual; web site

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This SBIR Phase II project, "A multi-user virtual Biology environment for discovery-oriented science education", is intended for consideration under the NIH Development of Discovery-Oriented Software and Tools for Science Education category through the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) following a Phase I project with the same title. The Virtual Cell is a multiuser, fully immersive 3D virtual environment for learning cell biology. While exploring the simulation, students are able to identify organelles, perform experiments, diagnose faulty cell mechanisms, and collaborate with other users on their work. This virtual world is coupled with the Virtual Cell Animation Project, an award-winning series of animations of biological processes that occur in plant and animal cells. These efforts have been shown to improve student understanding of cell biology in a number of controlled studies (McClean et al., 2001; Slator et al., 2005; McClean et al., 2005). WoWiWe Instruction Co is in partnership with the One-To-One Institute through the Kauffman Foundation in a project to distribute the Virtual Cell to secondary school students in Michigan. Approximately 3,000 students will be included in a pilot study starting in Fall 2009. Following a successful pilot project, full deployment to 150,000 students will occur in 2010. One of the goals of the NIH is to "develop, maintain, and renew scientific human and physical resources that will assure the Nation's capability to prevent disease". The development of human resources as health professionals remains a high priority for the NIH and the nation as a whole. To further this mission, WoWiWe Instruction Co proposes to engage in a commercial endeavor to expand the content of the Virtual Cell virtual world and sell it to interested parties, primarily secondary school students, ranging from casual adopters to schools and others who will use it in a more structured fashion. Five objectives have been identified to maximize the technical and commercial effectiveness of the Virtual Cell: Objective 1: Convert six animations to fully immersive, interactive learning modules Objective 2: Build server infrastructure to handle anticipated users of the Virtual Cell learning environment and measure the throughput of the infrastructure prototype to determine efficacy for Phase III efforts. Objective 3: Implement appropriate educational levels for the new modules using reproducible methods. Objective 4: Beta test deployment methods by adding implemented modules through a hosted website and measuring student feedback with anonymous survey instruments Objective 5: Implement innovative automated agent based software testing. This Phase II project will position WoWiWe Instruction Co to open revenue streams through both collection of Virtual Cell modules and other IVE technologies in other content areas. This in turn will support marketing to different demographics (across the K-grey continuum). These revenue streams will allow us to continue to research more effective methodologies for educating the future health scientists and professionals of tomorrow. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The relevance of this project to public health is three-fold. First, the research is aimed at developing and distributing new models for science education, thus providing new methods of learning in the classroom and leading to a more scientifically literate public. Second, through test results, this project lays the groundwork for other topics to be developed for science education in the same media. Third, the project promotes learning of the sciences in a virtual modality, like the online games that currently absorb our youth: for example, World of Warcraft and Second Life, among many others.

描述（由申请人提供）：SBIR第二阶段项目，“面向发现的科学教育的多用户虚拟生物学环境”，旨在通过国家研究资源中心（NCRR）在相同标题的第一阶段项目之后，在NIH面向发现的软件和科学教育工具开发类别下进行考虑。虚拟细胞是一个多用户，完全身临其境的3D虚拟环境，用于学习细胞生物学。在探索模拟的过程中，学生能够识别细胞器，进行实验，诊断有缺陷的细胞机制，并与其他用户合作完成他们的工作。这个虚拟世界与虚拟细胞动画项目相结合，该项目是一系列获奖的植物和动物细胞中发生的生物过程动画。在一些对照研究中，这些努力已被证明可以提高学生对细胞生物学的理解（McClean et al., 2001; Slator et al., 2005; McClean et al., 2005）。WoWiWe教学公司通过考夫曼基金会与一对一研究所合作，在一个项目中向密歇根州的中学生分发虚拟单元。大约3000名学生将参与2009年秋季开始的试点研究。试点项目取得成功后，将于2010年全面部署到15万名学生。美国国立卫生研究院的目标之一是“发展、维持和更新科学人力和物质资源，以确保国家预防疾病的能力”。人力资源作为卫生专业人员的发展仍然是NIH和整个国家的高度优先事项。为了进一步完成这一使命，WoWiWe指令公司建议进行商业努力，扩大虚拟细胞虚拟世界的内容，并将其出售给感兴趣的各方，主要是中学生，从临时采用者到学校和其他将以更结构化的方式使用它的人。已经确定了五个目标，以最大限度地提高虚拟细胞的技术和商业有效性：目标1：将六个动画转换为完全沉浸式交互式学习模块目标2：构建服务器基础设施，以处理虚拟细胞学习环境的预期用户，并测量基础设施原型的吞吐量，以确定第三阶段工作的有效性。目标3：使用可重复的方法为新模块实施适当的教育水平。目标4：通过托管网站添加已实现模块并使用匿名调查工具测量学生反馈来进行Beta测试部署方法。目标5：实现基于自动化代理的软件测试。该二期项目将使WoWiWe指令公司通过收集虚拟单元模块和其他内容领域的其他IVE技术来打开收入流。这反过来又将支持针对不同人口统计的营销（跨越K-grey连续体）。这些收入将使我们能够继续研究更有效的方法，以教育未来的卫生科学家和未来的专业人员。