Virtual Lab
Reported August 2007
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Students learning science in the classroom can now give their textbooks a break.
One of the best places for hands-on learning is in science class, but small budget experiments and textbooks don't always get the point across.
"It's too much text based, too much reading about difficult concepts and for a lot of students, it's very hard for them to see what those words mean", said Linda Cauley, Director of Shenandoah Valley Governor's School.
Now, a new virtual reality website helps students get a better grasp on basic science concepts.
"I'm a very visual learner -- it's a lot easier for me to memorize say a picture or a graph as opposed to a paragraph of letters", Ben Holman who is a high school student.
"We were learning in the textbook about it, but then we went to the computers and showed a different way to look at it", said Katie Blackard, another high school student.
The virtual lab, developed by engineers and students at the University of Virginia, guides students through 50 experiments, along with text and vivid animations that explain how things work -- like semiconductors and generators.
"The thing about virtual reality is I can show things that are invisible. One of the things that we depict frequently are electrical fields. You can't see those. I can make them visible with virtual reality", said John Bean, Ph.D., an Engineer at the University of Virginia.
The site is geared to high school and college freshmen -- providing online study help for homework assignments -- for a better, visual understanding of science.
"Seeing it on the computer screen makes it a better picture in your head, a better way to understand it", said Katie Blackard
The virtual lab website can be found at: http://www.virlab.virginia.edu/VL/contents.htm .
The American Association of Physics Teachers contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.
Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:
Andrea Arco
Director of Marketin
University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science
(434) 924-7508
Ana8n@cms.mail.virginia.edu
For more information about learning about physics through virtual reality:
American Association of Physics Teachers
College Park, MD
(301) 209-3311
hhttp://www.aapt.org
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