Funded by: National Science Foundation
Virtual Reality Applications Center
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa 50011-2160
8/2001 to 9/2003
Abstract
This RET supplement will be used to support the work of Sylvia Tiala in the Virtual Reality Applications Laboratory at Iowa State University. Ms. Tiala is currently an Industrial Education Instructor at Boone High School in Boone, Iowa. She has a strong interest in computer technology and has been integrating computer simulation activities into her classroom since 1994. This includes writing grant proposals to design an interactive space capsule simulator, participating in NASA workshops, and integrating technologies such as teleoperated robotics, electronics, virtual reality and aerospace activities into her classroom. Research comparing the effectiveness of traditional, simulated and virtual environments was completed as a partial requirement for her Master of Science degree in Training and Development. This research was performed with Dr. Judy M. Vance, the Principal Investigator of this NSF grant. Ms. Tiala is continuing to explore the effectiveness of virtual environments as she purses her doctoral degree at Iowa State University on a part-time unfunded basis. The focus of this RET supplement is on developing the skills Ms. Tiala needs to take virtual reality technology back to her classroom and integrate it into her curriculum, not on supporting Ms. Tiala’s research. This project has two goals: 1) to determine the right combination of hardware and software that will allow high school students to develop virtual reality applications, and 2) to provide Ms. Tiala with the skills needed to take this knowledge and implement it in the classroom. Most experiences at the research level involve very expensive hardware and very complicated software to create virtual environment simulations. The goal here is to use low-cost hardware and easy to use software to allow high school students to create simple virtual environments. A software program called Alice, originally developed at the University of Virginia with DARPA support, will be used. This program was designed to be easy to use to develop immersive virtual worlds. Ms. Tiala will be exploring the capabilities of Alice and learning the Python programming language. She will also be investigating integration of head and hand position trackers and head-mounted-displays into the Alice program.
