"It's been argued that simulations and computer-based models have proven to be the most powerful resources for advancing and applying math and science since the origins of mathematical modeling in the Renaissance."
- Roy Pea, Director of the NSF Funded SRI's Center of Innovative Learning Technology
System
The Virtual Gorilla Toolkit enables students to build virtual models of gorilla motion and social interaction within a virtual reality inquiry framework. Using the “Virtual Gorilla Construction Kit,” students build virtual models within the context of answering questions about gorilla behavior. The modeling possible with the virtual environment we have created, which is quantitative/logical in its underlying operation, can help students move beyond the purely descriptive to an understanding of the relationships between relevant variables. Virtual reality is an environment that is uniquely suited for the dynamic nature of 3-D gorilla motion. Research has shown that students do not effectively blend the lectures, 2-D static images, and textual descriptions of scientific phenomena. Building virtual reality models is the right match for the content and builds deep understanding of the 3-D nature of science concepts and the inquiry skills of model-based science. We believe the Virtual Gorilla Construction Kit represents an exciting learning environment to use the power of cyberspace to learn about gorilla space. The market for the project for this immediate version of the software will be other zoo educational programs, middle school life science, high school biology, and university freshman-level animal behavior survey courses.
More Information
You can read all about Virtual Gorilla in action at the Virtual Gorilla project website.Download
You can download our demonstration system to test out the tools and environment, however the editing tools should be considered in an “alpha” state, as they are currently being developed. Minimum requirements for running the software are at least a 900MHz processor, 256 MB RAM, 50 MB free hard drive space, and a graphics card based on Nvidia’s GeForce3 or higher chipset with 64MB of video memory. The Virtual Gorilla Toolset requires DirectX 8.1 or higher, which can be downloaded from www.microsoft.com/directx . The software has only been tested on Windows 2000 and XP.