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WWWIC Virtual Cell Development Project
The Virtual Cell is a development project of the North Dakota State University World Wide Web Instructional Committee (WWWIC). Major support for the Virtual Cell development is being provided by a two-year grant from the National Science Foundation. The title of the grant is: A Shared Developmental Environment for Science-based Courseware. This project is one of three the committee is managing. The titles of the other two projects are: Geology Explorer and Visual Computer Program.The long term goal of the Virtual Cell development project is to create an environment in which students can learn about the the structure and function of the cell. Active learning is our objective. We have decided to introduce our students to the material through the use of experiments. For example, a student might be asked to travel through the cell and identify each of the key organelles. They may come up to a chloroplast and state "This is a chloroplast." Although they may be correct, we want to encourage decision making based on experimentation. So the program will ask them how they know it is a chloroplast. This line of questioning will motivate the student to collect evidence from experiments that will provide them with the information necessary to distinguish the chloroplast from other cellular organelles. The student will present that evidence to the program, and if it is distinguishing evidence, points will be awarded for completing that task. Similar interactions between the student and the program are planned for all aspects relating cellular structure and function.
VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) was chosen as the language for the development of the Virtual Cell environment because it provides the kind of active, navigable environment we need. Another positive aspect of VRML is that it can be delivered through the familiar browser interface.
Finally, we are planning to create the Virtual Cell as a multiple user environment. To this end, we have chosen LambdaMOO as the server to control the multiple rooms and domains. The cell itself will be a room, and the interior of each organelle will also be room in the LambdaMOO environment. Using a MOO poses unique research opportunities because software must be developed that manages the multiple, simultaneous interactions between objects defined in LambdaMOO, Java, and VRML and synchronized in the Virtual Cell" multiple, simultaneous interactions with the Virtual Cell VRML world. Therefore, we are researching ways in which the MUD/MOO approach can be extended to virtual worlds.
For more information you can contact Phil McClean, one of the co-project managers.
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