Abstract Detail

Education and Outreach

Krakos, Kyra [1].

Bringing the Outside Inside: Creating and Using Virtual Learning Spaces for Botany.

Virtual reality (VR) is quickly becoming capable of extending high quality education globally as the cost of equipment falls and quality increases. Field research sites such as Shaw Nature Reserve (SNR) provide important real-world research experiences for education in botanical science. A variety of different habitats at SNR create multiple opportunities for research in plant ecology. Student access to these locations and learning experiences may be a challenge for many reasons: bloom times of plant species, unpredictable weather conditions, conflicts with timing of school years, and school financial resources. Creating virtual learning spaces is a solution to overcoming some of these challenges. In the summer 2018, we collected VR scenes at 6 locations across 4 months to provide both spatial and temporal templates for the 360 environments. The blooming plants in the area were documented across the season. During the 2018-19 school year, these templates were used to create a virtual learning space in the classroom during winter months and for student populations without access to field experiences. These VR templates were used by upper division courses to create learning modules and content that were used both in classrooms and by the general public.

1 - Maryville University, Biology, 650 Maryville University, St Louis, MO, 63141, United States

Keywords:
virtual reality
education
teaching modules.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: EO1, Education and Outreach I
Location: Tucson C/Starr Pass
Date: Monday, July 29th, 2019
Time: 10:45 AM
Number: EO1011
Abstract ID:367
Candidate for Awards:None