SBIR Phase I: Web-Based Collaborative Virtual Model Building for Learning in Astronomy

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project proposes to develop, deploy, and evaluate a virtual reality-based modeling kit that will enable students to collaboratively build, cohabit, and present virtual models of the solar system within a web-based inquiry framework. This system will enable students to explore fundamental questions of planetary motion; independently or collaboratively construct models of the solar system; share and cohabit these virtual models with other local and remote students, mentors or teachers through the web; and present these models to large audiences. This general instructional approach has been tested and validated through pilot projects using limited off-the-shelf virtual reality tools. Cybernet Systems Corporation believes that this instructional approach and base technology will open up an entirely new mode of instruction that will be extendable to many other mathematics, science, and technology domains. The market for the project for this immediate version of the software will be middle school earth science, high school physics, and university freshman-level astronomy survey courses. It is important to realize that the underlying technology and instructional approach will be applicable in a wide range of domains (weather, ecology, mathematics, geometric, etc.) and Cybernet Systems Corporation intends to explore and develop these potentials in the next phase of the research. In the near term, the research team believes that there is a significant impact to be made at all levels with the initial domain of planetary motion.