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SienceSpace

Enhance learning difficult and abstract scientific material through multisensory immersion in virtual worlds. Students gain direct experiential intuitions about how the natural world operates.

christophermccoy
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SienceSpace

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  1. SienceSpace Virtual Realities for Learning Complex and Abstract Scientific Concepts

  2. Motivation • Students should be able to intuitively understand the natural world function before given the formal representation and reasoning scientists use • Enable students to predict the behavior of objects in the universe is more important that teaching to manipulate equations • VR interface can potentially complement existing approaches to science instruction • The student can become a part of the phenomena • The student gain direct experiential intuitions about how the natural world operates

  3. Goal • Enhance learning difficult and abstract material by multisensory immersion: • based on 3D representation • multiple perspective and frames of reference • a multimodal interface • simultaneous visual, auditory and haptic feedback • types of interaction unavailable in real world

  4. Setup and Basic Concept • Consists of • high-performance graphics workstation with two video output channels • a color, stereoscopic head-mounted display • a stereo sound system • a magnetic tracking system for the head and both hands • a 3-D mouse and menu • a haptic vest • A collection of virtual worlds designed to aid students in mastering challenging concepts in science • Immerse students in 3-D microworlds using the visual, auditory, and tactile senses. Students use a virtual hand (controlled by a 3-D mouse) and menus to navigate and manipulate objects in the worlds.

  5. Newton World • Investigate the kinematics and dynamics of one-dimensional motion • Two balls move and rebound from each other and the walls in a “corridor” • Interact using a "virtual hand" and a menu system (access by selecting a small 3Ball) • Launch and catch balls of various masses and can "beam" from the ball into and among cameras strategically placed around the corridor • Multisensory cues help students experience phenomena (tactile, visual, auditory) • Learners can advance from basic to more advanced activities

  6. Newton World

  7. Maxwell World • Explore electrostatics, leading to the concept of Gauss’ law • A cube • Menus are attached to the left wrist • Students can place pos. or neg. charges into the world • force, electric field lines, potentials, surfaces of equipotential, and lines of electric flux through surfaces can be observed

  8. Maxwell World

  9. Pauling World • Study molecular structures via a variety of representations • ball-and-stick form • vanderWaals' spheres • "wireframe" backbone • coded sticks • icons that replace repetitive structures • structural data can be read in directly from pdb (protein database) files available on WWW

  10. Pauling World 3D iconic representation with some amino acid groups Ball and stick backbone representations of a molecule Space filling representation Wireframe representation of a molecule

  11. Evaluation (1/4) • Usability tests • Task completion • Error frequency • Ratings of how easy students found each task • Rankings of the four interaction styles • Comments of students and experimenter observations

  12. Evaluation (2/4) • Physics educators surveye • Interactive experinces • Recommendations for improvements • Perceptions of how effective 3D learning environment would be for demonstrating Newtonian physics

  13. Evaluation (3/4) • Evaluating for learnability • Thought aloud • Predicted relationships or behaviors • Experienced them • Assessed prediction based on observation • Comparison of usability • Visual cues only • visual and auditory cues • Visual, auditory, and haptic cues

  14. Evaluation (4/4) • Results • Students predictions and comments • Usability questionnaires • Interview feedback • Pre- and post-test knowledge

  15. Lessons Learned • Challenges in using VR interfaces • Individual differences in interaction style, ability to interact with 3D environment, and susceptibility to simulator sickness • Challenges for lesson administration (students in head-mounted displays can not access written instructions or questions) • Head-mounted displays may cause discomfort for users • Spreading lesson over multiple shorter VR session seems to be more efficient

  16. Lessons Learned • Insight about learning and knowledge representation • Multisensory cues direct learners attention to important behaviors and relationships, help better understanding • New representations and perspectives help students developing correct mental models • Multimodal interaction enhance learning, allowing users to use their preferred interaction method (students need not redirect their attention) • Usability can enhance learning, but optimizing usability will not necessary optimize learning

  17. Enhancements • Optimizing, evaluating, and translating from laboratory to classroom settings • Geographically remote users share the same workspace • Additional representation, e.g. a scoreboard introducing game-like elements, to enhance motivation

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