Abstract:

It is recognized that education in the sciences is of strategic importance for the further development of the economy and society in the modern world. Therefore, subjects such as maths, physics or informatics are of particular importance in education at primary and secondary levels, and they are more important than ever.

However, sciences are usually difficult to understand for students. Many studies have shown that students have difficulty grasping topics and understanding aspects of science courses in primary and secondary schools, such as mathematics, chemistry, and physics.

We have written this article to present the results of DigiCAMP - Digital Education Readiness and Collaborative Virtual Environment for Mathematics, Informatics, and Physics Education (project number 2021-1-CZ01-KA220-SCH-000031553), which reflects the specific role natural science disciplines play in school education. DigiCAMP 3D Virtual Learning Environment developed using the OpenSim 3D Virtual Reality environment, contains more than 75 educational scenarios that cover mathematics, physics and informatics. This interactive virtual learning environment enables students to gain knowledge of abstract concepts by observing procedures that can help them relate abstract concepts to specific experiences.

This 3D virtual learning environment consists of living labs, which have been designed to meet two objectives:
- using teaching scenarios, they will provide teachers with instructions on how to plan/create lessons using multimedia materials, 3D virtual worlds, and gamification techniques,
- support students in creating suitable mental models of relevant concepts by utilizing interactive and visual living labs created in a 3D virtual educational environment.

In the article, we present the results of the pilot verification of the outputs of the DigiCAMP project, in which the following target groups of the DigiCAMP project participated:
- Teachers at the primary and lower secondary school level (ISCED 2-3).
- Students/pupils aged 6 - 15 who study at most at lower secondary school.
- Entities interested in offering biology/natural science courses.

Keywords:

Virtual reality, education, Erasmus+, project experiences.