An investigation of using virtual reality to develop “earth motion” curriculum in elementary school

• Main Authors: Sarah Shen, 沈潔華
• Other Authors: Jie-Chi Yang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/07770363975822901830

碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 網路學習科技研究所 === 93 === The concepts of “earth motion” in Astronomy are misconceptions for most pupils. The virtual reality is a potential educational tool. So in this study, we developed a learning environment and designed activities integrated with virtual reality, and implemented in the earth motion curriculum for the elementary students. The purpose here is to explore a little further into the effectiveness of teaching and learning with virtual reality. The study was conducted to evaluate the effect after the development. 21 students in grade six participated in the study to learn earth science through this curriculum integrated with virtual reality. The results show that there is a significant difference between pretest and posttest. This curriculum we developed can assist children to clarify their misconceptions. According to the conclusions of this study, the following recommendations are purposed for developing virtual reality environment: the necessary of sufficient information and assistant aids on object, the balance consideration between the freedom environment and the clear views, and the calculation accuracy of the environment. The main findings of applying virtual reality in the teaching can be described briefly as follows. It was agreed that virtual reality is a useful instruction tool, because it showed the whole process through learning by doing and helped students to understand the astronomy phenomenon. And assisting virtual reality with webpage, PPT, and flash animation’s material can recover the drawback of the 3D virtual reality with displaying information.