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

描述（由申请人提供）：这个SBIR第二阶段项目，“一个多用户虚拟生物学环境的发现为导向的科学教育”，旨在通过国家研究资源中心（NCRR）的NIH开发的发现为导向的软件和工具的科学教育类别的考虑后，第一阶段项目具有相同的标题。Virtual Cell是一个多用户，完全沉浸式的3D虚拟环境，用于学习细胞生物学。在探索模拟的同时，学生能够识别细胞器，执行实验，诊断故障细胞机制，并与其他用户合作进行工作。这个虚拟世界与虚拟细胞动画项目相结合，这是一个获奖的植物和动物细胞生物过程动画系列。这些努力已经在许多对照研究中显示出提高了学生对细胞生物学的理解（McClean等人，2001; Slator等人，2005; McClean等人，2005年）。WoWiWe教学公司通过考夫曼基金会与一对一研究所合作，向密歇根州的中学生分发虚拟细胞。大约3 000名学生将被纳入2009年秋季开始的试点研究。试点项目成功后，将于2010年向150 000名学生全面部署。国家卫生研究院的目标之一是“发展、维护和更新科学人力和物力资源，以确保国家预防疾病的能力”。卫生专业人员人力资源的开发仍然是NIH和整个国家的首要任务。为了进一步完成这一使命，WoWiWe Instruction Co提议进行商业奋进，扩大Virtual Cell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有条理的方式使用它的人。目标1：将六个动画转换为完全沉浸式的交互式学习模块目标2：构建服务器基础设施，以处理虚拟单元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效率。目标3：采用可重复的方法，为新的模块实施适当的教育水平。目标4：Beta测试部署方法，通过托管网站添加已实现的模块，并使用匿名调查工具测量学生反馈目标5：实现基于创新自动代理的软件测试。这个第二阶段的项目将定位WoWiWe指令公司打开收入来源，通过收集虚拟细胞模块和其他IVE技术在其他内容领域。这反过来又将支持针对不同人口统计数据的营销（跨K灰色连续体）。这些收入来源将使我们能够继续研究更有效的方法，以教育未来的健康科学家和专业人士。 公共卫生相关性：该项目与公共卫生的相关性有三个方面。首先，这项研究旨在开发和推广科学教育的新模式，从而提供课堂学习的新方法，并提高公众的科学素养。第二，通过测试结果，该项目为在同一媒体中开发科学教育的其他主题奠定了基础。第三，该项目促进以虚拟方式学习科学，就像目前吸引我们年轻人的在线游戏：例如魔兽世界和第二人生等。

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.