Introduction
The Solar System is an extremely multifaceted theoretical technical concept. Its dynamic natural world, huge spatial extents, and diverse time level cannot be perceived directly by the minds. In order to comprehend essential astronomical phenomena such as the day-night cycle, cyclic changes, moon’s stages and eclipses, one must imagine the relative movement and place of the terrestrial objects in 3D space, as these may come out from different viewpoints at the same time (Gazit, et al., 2005).
Much virtual reality (VR) settings are being used to improve students’ theoretical growth of abstract scientific phenomena (Gazit, et al., 2005). Barnett et al. (2004) discussed the variety of characteristics of VR with respect to learning and put a particular focus on the possible benefits of using VR in teaching the multifaceted subject of Global Change. Gazit et al. (2005) state as a universal standard that VR advances learning, when it does, by providing the learners with fresh, direct knowledge of phenomena they could not have practiced before, also in direct contact with the real world or using other technologies. Barnett et al. (2004) recommended that VR is attractive and tempting, and can teach complex topics with less need to simplify them. In a VR setting students can easily and without effort visit places and view objects from different points of view, and can research by controlling variables that cannot be maneuver in the real world. This highlights the idea that VR is best for letting students discover things and build their own knowledge. This paper shall provide a literature review of the 3D system in science education.
Literature Review
The Virtual Solar System (VSS) can be used as a visual thinking tool for the improvement of a compound cognitive model of astronomical phenomena. This aptitude could hold up students that experience complexity in the learning of theoretical scientific perception via proper teaching. The present VSS is not a software tool as such, but quite a lively simulation, based on real NASA imagery of more than 90 space substances within the solar system. The learning procedure within the VSS was based on the vigorous manipulation of four predefined special frames of orientation and additional manipulation of the point of view inside the automated structure of references.
The 3D computational modeling technologies in the VSS course provide a device that assists the students’ building of their astronomical representations and work of art. Through this course, the VSS students are educated about astronomy ideas, main beliefs and thoughts as they partake in the necessary modeling projects of the course. These conditions established a background for their learning and allow them to be trained by interacting with their model, their peers, and the teachers.
Applying Problem-based learning (PBL) in classrooms without equipment shows to be demanding. Its execution challenges include unproductive ways to present the innermost problem in the course of oral or written means, large investment in time and effort to build up PBL units, initial uneasiness with the methodology from the student and teacher, and the necessitate for new forms of evaluation (Liu, M. 2005).
Technology has been recommended as a way to deal with some of these challenges. Barnett et al (2004) suggested the use of hypermedia to deliver problem situations to aid “students understand the situation and see the significance of a mixture of contextual rudiments”. The nonlinear, associative, and interactive ability of hypermedia can allow students to access information according to their own educational needs and give rich information resources during different mediums in a more well-organized way (Liu, M. 2005). Hypermedia-enhanced PBL can connect learners in cognitive activities that would be out of their reach otherwise, and help learners to make and test the theory through simulations. When hypermedia-based apparatus are used to improve the cognitive powers of learners during their thoughts, problem-solving, and learning, they turn out to be cognitive tools (Liu, M. 2005). Cognitive tools can improve PBL delivery and offer essential support to learners.
Market-oriented learning improvement and high-stakes responsibility have highlighted the long-standing stress between inquiry-oriented approaches to science teaching and conservative standardized testing. Researchers have collected considerable evidence showing that inquiry-oriented training helps students learn scientific ways of thinking. NASA uses investigation as its approach because engaging students in inquiry-based education is anticipated to get better not only in their motivation in science but enhance their scientific literacy (Taasoobshirazi et al, 2006).
The design-based study can be typified as an engineering approach to instructive study, because it ‘‘combines creative design and experiential testing of the products and processes throughout growth and assessment, ’’resulting in ‘‘tools and/or processes that work well for their future uses and users, with evidence-based evaluations’’ (Taasoobshirazi et al, 2006). Identifying the degree to which helpful new thoughts, or ‘‘tools and processes’’ are joined to a variety of contextual features helps others apply that knowledge to new domains and contexts, essential for deriving what (Taasoobshirazi et al, 2006) describes as ‘‘usable knowledge.’’
Literature on motivation and classroom education has exposed that motivation plays a significant role in manipulating education and attainment (Liu, M. 2005). If motivated, students tend to approach demanding tasks keenly, persevere in complexity, and take enjoyment in their accomplishments (Liu, M. 2005). Research has also revealed that instructional context strongly influences students’ motivation. Instructional resources that are demanding, give students options, and encourage perceived independence and self-determination can have optimistic outcomes on students’ motivation (Liu, M. 2005).
Students with optimistic approaches are more likely to maintain their efforts and have the aspiration to be concerned about learning responsibilities. There is some evidence that attitude on the way to science speaks about positively with attainment (Liu, M. 2005). In analyzing the literature about attitudes toward science over the past 20 years, Liu, M (2005) noted that research point out a decline in attitudes toward science from age 11 forward and an obvious disagreement between students’ attitudes toward science is universal and their attitudes toward school science. In analyzing issues that can influence attitudes, Liu (2005) stresses that how science resources are trained in classrooms can influence students’ attitudes.
In customary lecture courses, context is merely the reason of the direct situation and very often is separated from any comprehensive or linked meaning (Barnett et al, 2004). Students in customary lecture courses are not provided with the chance to relate cognitive or physical tools to precise conditions that challenge them to think divergently or connect them in the kind of problem-solving necessary in real-world occupation. By providing students with surroundings in which they attempt to give details phenomena through building models that intimately estimated it, they are afforded the chance to incessantly confront their understandings as they develop. These understandings grow out of vigorously building what works, versus inactively accepting previously tested hypotheses and associations. The VSS course is set apart in depth somewhere else (Gazit, et al., 2005), and stands for a learning model that works. Its achievement stems from the project-based center and learning controlled around student-created works of art that is collaboratively shared, discuss, and openly presented.
The use of 3D modeling apparatus is a precious piece of the learning environment when the course content and background lend themselves or are planned, to profit from the nature of the active 3D environment. While 3D modeling does emerge to hold much promise for the learning of multifaceted spatial phenomena, it also comes into view to have some inadequacy. Students learning subject matter that does not need an understanding of movement, viewpoint, or spatial direction seem to promote little from using this instrument, and may even be delayed by its extra layers of difficulty.
Conclusion
3D modeling comes into view to be a feasible tool to develop a spatial way of thinking and visualization. Students who had contributed to the VSS course had responses that earned considerably advanced scores on questions that required them to understand, manipulate and conceptualize 3D relationships, such as questions about the seasons, eclipses, and the scale of the solar system
Accounting for and scheming investigational variables will for all time be a demanding task for the learning examiner. The current progress of other innovative immersive virtual reality environments for the education of compound astronomical phenomena gives rise to new queries concerning the development of technical conceptual understanding and the result of incidence on students concentration and inspiration (Gazit, et al., 2005).
In adding up, this learning provides the research community with the chance to further condense the advantages and function of dynamic 3D modeling in different situations, as well as offer educational policy-makers an experiential base on which conclusions can be made.
Reference
- Gazit, Elhanan. Yoav, Yair and Chen, David (2005). Emerging Conceptual Understanding of Complex Astronomical Phenomena by Using a Virtual Solar System. Journal of Science Education and Technology, Vol.14, Nos.5/6, DOI: 10.1007/s10956-005-0221-3
- Barnett, M., Hansen, J.A., Makinster, J.G. and Keating. T. (2004). The impact of three-dimensional computational modeling on student understanding of astronomy concepts: a qualitative analysis. International Journal of Science Education.
- Liu, M. (2005). “The Effect of a Hypermedia Learning Environment on Middle School Students’ Motivation, Attitude, and Science Knowledge”. Vol.22,No.3/4, 2005, pp.159-171 DOI: 10.1300/ J025v22n03_13.
- Taasoobshirazi, Gita. Zuiker, Steven J. Anderson, Kate T. and Hickey, Daniel T. (2006). Enhancing Inquiry, Understanding, and Achievement in an Astronomy Multimedia Learning Environment. Journal of Science Education and Technology, Vol.15, No.5, DOI: 10.1007/s10956-006-9028-0