Creating Biologically Realistic 3-D animations to Encourage Inquiry in the Classroom

1. Creating Biologically Realistic 3-D animations to Encourage Inquiry in the Classroom J. Steve Oliver & Kyung-A Kwon Saturday, March 20, 2010 Presentation at the National Science Teacher’s Association Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA

2. Project introduction • Title: Learning Biological Processes using Animations and Inquiry • A five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health - Science Education Partnership Award Program (SEPA). • Working with high school teachers, professors, scientists, curriculum experts, animators, and computer programmers.

3. Biological Process and 3-D Exploration Case Studies

4. RationaleWhy did we do this? • To increase the students’ enthusiasm for learning these biological processes • To understand the relevance of science to their lives • To help students to see biology as ‘real’ • To improve student learning of biological processes in health and disease • To stimulate an interest in science as a potential career path.

5. Work with teachers • Summer 2009 • One week workshop with three science teachers and a BSCS specialist • Fall 2009 • Rigorous formative tryout in schools • Three High Schools

6. Changes from original vet school animations • A variety of intracellular processes in a dynamic environment • http://www.vet.uga.edu/outreach/NIH • Functions • extract still images from the animation • pause the movies • enable a review • mute the narration

7. Changes from original vet school animations • Incorporation of interactive 3-D animations into inquiry based clinical case studies • The animations will allow the students to explore, interact, and conduct inquiries about the effects of the particular diseases on the biological structure and functions

8. What did we hope to gain by adding inquiry and making the animations interactive? • What did we hope to gain through the use of a game engine?

9. Standards (GPS covered by Hyponatremia animation) • Content Objectives • Characteristics of science objectives

10. AnimationHyponatremia and Clark • Goal • To understand osmosis and its role in health and disease. • Scenario • There is a sick calf named Clark that needs your help.

11. Task List • 1) Know the environment • 2) Understand how to use the program • 3) Collect data (taking measurement) • 4) Interpret data • 5) Make a hypothesis • 6) Test your hypothesis (applying treatments) • 7) Draws conclusions

13. Play Hyponatremia Animation

14. Dilemmas • Length of case studies • Immediate applicability • Does the animation accomplish what they need to accomplish? • Do the case studies help teachers accomplish the standards? • Scale • Scientific accuracy

15. Animation-Dialysis • Not biological but serves as a model for filtration • Students will fly into the 3-D model of a dialysis filter, move through the blood as it is being filtered, and take measurements. • Students will learn the relative sizes of blood components, concept of filtration in our body, and the goals of dialysis.

19. Contact Information • Website • go and signup for a mailing list • http://www.coe.uga.edu/mse/ideal/ • Email • J. Steve Oliver : soliver@uga.edu