- The museum of simulation technology looks pretty cool full#
- The museum of simulation technology looks pretty cool free#
“We don’t know whether a VR experience results in more learning compared to the same materials presented in other media,” Bailenson said. “Across age groups, learning settings and learning content, people understand the processes and effect of ocean acidification after a short immersive VR experience,” said study lead author David Markowitz, a graduate student at the time of the research, now an assistant professor at the University of Oregon. In all of the study’s in-school experiments, participants demonstrated increasing knowledge about ocean acidification as their time in the VR learning environment grew longer. Seeing ocean acidification happen is different than just hearing about it.”Īfter the experience, the Sacred Heart students’ scores on questions about ocean acidification causes and mechanisms increased by almost 150 percent and they retained that knowledge when tested several weeks later. “It was way more realistic than I expected,” said fellow high school senior Alexa Levison. “I definitely felt like I was underwater.” “It’s pretty cool, pretty responsive,” said 18-year-old Cameron Chapman. (Image credit: Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab) Some of the students swiveled their heads and twisted their bodies during the simulation.Įlise Ogle, a researcher in the Virtual Human Interaction Lab, tries out the Stanford Ocean Acidification Experience, with a coral animation still in the background.
The simulation was effective at making users feel a connection with their bodies, according to researchers who tracked the students’ movements.
The museum of simulation technology looks pretty cool full#
“If ocean acidification continues, ecosystems like your rocky reef, a world that was once full of biological diversity, will become a world of weeds,” the narration intones. The simulation is based on the work of Fiorenza Micheli, the David and Lucile Packard Professor of Marine Science at Stanford.Įventually, the viewer’s virtual coral skeleton disintegrates. They are replaced by slimy green algae and the silver Salema Porgy – a fish that will likely thrive in more acidic waters. Each became a pink coral on a rocky underwater reef throbbing with urchins, bream, snails and other creatures.īy the end of the simulation – which fast-forwards to what the reef will look like at the end of this century – those brilliantly varied and colorful species have disappeared.
The museum of simulation technology looks pretty cool free#
In one such test, high school seniors in a marine biology class at Sacred Heart Preparatory in Atherton, California, took on new virtual identities in the simulation (which is free to download). Working with co-author Roy Pea, the David Jacks Professor of Education and director of Stanford’s Human-Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute, Bailenson and his team brought the Stanford Ocean Acidification Experience to more than 270 high school students, college students and adults.
With the advent of affordable consumer-grade gear from companies such as Oculus Rift, Samsung and Microsoft, potential audiences for VR are expanding far beyond Stanford’s multimillion-dollar Virtual Human Interaction Lab. “Changing the right minds can have a huge impact.” New gear, wider reach “I believe virtual reality is a powerful tool that can help the environment in so many ways,” said study co-author Jeremy Bailenson, the Thomas More Storke Professor of Communication. The researchers found that experiencing a simulation of ocean acidification’s effects spurred meaningful gains in people’s understanding of the issue. 30 in Frontiers in Psychology, researchers at Stanford and the University of Oregon discovered that VR can be a powerful tool for improving environmental learning gains and attitudes. Researchers at Stanford and the University of Oregon discovered that VR can be a powerful tool for improving environmental learning gains and attitudes.Įnter virtual reality.