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A Virtual Environment Designed To Help Students Understand Science

This paper reports research in progress regarding the effectiveness of immersive virtual environments (IVEs) in helping students understand complex scientific concepts and principles. The subject matter is the ecology of Puget Sound, in Washington State. The purpose of the project is to determine how different characteristics of immersive virtual environments are exploited by learners to improve their understanding of complex environmental processes, and to determine what aspects of the virtual environment facilitate or hinder this understanding. In this paper we describe: The conceptual framework that is guiding our work; the IVE itself, Virtual Puget Sound (VPS); the tasks students perform in it; and, the research that is currently underway. We conclude with some observations about the general role of IVEs in learning science.