Abstract
Driven by the high fidelity and low cost of the latest head-mounted devices reaching the consumer market, Virtual Reality (VR) is a technology upon which rests increased expectations for improving education and training outcomes. The unique capacity of VR to produce experiences with high levels of immersion, presence, and interactivity, opens a series of prospects to improve the learning of declarative, procedural, and practical knowledge through a new modality of educational content. This paper explores some of the most promising opportunities of VR through the development and evaluation of Sea of Cells, an immersive VR interactive experience to enhance the learning of the prokaryotic cell. Methodologies to introduce the VR experience, both inside and outside classes, were also explored by analysing assessments from several Portuguese biology teachers. A test pilot made through video demonstration, shows a promising future for VR in education. Despite the physical limitations of the pilot study, due to Covid, after presenting the project to 7 10th grade Biology teachers, it was concluded that VR might be a relevant and innovative tool for educational settings.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Paxinou, E., Panagiotakopoulos, C.T., Karatrantou, A., Kalles, D., Sgourou, A.: Implementation and evaluation of a three-dimensional virtual reality biology lab versus conventional didactic practices in lab experimenting with the photonic microscope. Biochem. Mol. Biol. Educ. 48(1), 21–27 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1002/bmb.21307
Chiu, H.Y., et al.: The role of active engagement of peer observation in the acquisition of surgical skills in virtual reality tasks for novices. J. Surg. Educ. 76(6), 1655–1662 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2019.05.004
Radianti, J., Majchrzak, T.A., Fromm, J., Wohlgenannt, I.: A systematic review of immersive virtual reality applications for higher education: design elements, lessons learned, and research agenda. Comput. Educ. 147, 103778 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103778
RobotiX Mentor, Simbionix. https://simbionix.com/simulators/robotix-mentor/. Accessed 18 Mar 2021
Sharma, L., Prabhakaran, B., Jin, R., Gans, M.: LearnDNA: An interactive VR application for learning DNA structure. In: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, pp. 80–87, April 2018. https://doi.org/10.1145/3191801.3191810
The Body VR, Journey Inside a Cell. http://thebodyvr.com/journey-inside-a-cell/. Accessed 09 Feb 2021
Vesna, V., et al.: Noise Aquarium. In: ACM SIGGRAPH 2019 Art Gallery, SIGGRAPH 2019, pp. 1–2, July 2019. https://doi.org/10.1145/3306211.3324024
Moura, J.M., Kolen’ko, Y.: Sci-fi Miners: a virtual reality journey to the nanocluster scale. In: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, pp. 1–10, October 2019. https://doi.org/10.1145/3359852.3359912
Davidson, M.W.: Pioneers in optics: Zacharias Janssen and Johannes Kepler. Micros. Today 17(6), 44–47 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1017/s1551929509991052
Allcoat, D., von Mühlenen, A.: Learning in virtual reality: effects on performance, emotion and engagement. Res. Learn. Technol. 26 (2018). https://doi.org/10.25304/rlt.v26.2140
Andersen, E., et al.: The impact of tutorials on games of varying complexity. In: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, pp. 59–68 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1145/2207676.2207687
Plataforma de desenvolvimento em tempo real do Unity, 3D, 2D VR e Engine AR. https://unity.com/pt. Accessed 05 Mar 2021
Maya Software, Computer Animation & Modeling Software, Autodesk. https://www.autodesk.com/products/maya/overview?term=1-YEAR&support=null. Accessed 05 Mar 2021
Substance Painter, Substance 3D. https://www.substance3d.com/products/substance-painter/. Accessed 05 Mar 2021
4.2 Prokaryotic Cells – Biology, OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/biology/pages/4-2-prokaryotic-cells. Accessed 05 Mar 2021
Amplify Creations, Amplify Creations » Amplify Shader Editor. http://amplify.pt/unity/amplify-shader-editor/. Accessed 04 Mar 2021
Mesquita, A., Peres, P., Moreira, F.: The use of technology in Portuguese higher education: building bridges between teachers and students. In: Rocha, Á., Adeli, H., Reis, L.P., Costanzo, S. (eds.) WorldCIST’18 2018. AISC, vol. 746, pp. 1327–1336. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77712-2_127
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering
About this paper
Cite this paper
Monteiro, R., Rodrigues, N.F., Martinho, J., Oliveira, E. (2022). Sea of Cells: Learn Biology Through Virtual Reality. In: Brooks, E., Sjöberg, J., Møller, A.K. (eds) Design, Learning, and Innovation. DLI 2021. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 435. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06675-7_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06675-7_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-06674-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-06675-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)