Teaching Using Immersion -- Explaining Magnetism and Eclipses in a Planetarium Dome

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that using fullsphere movies in a planetarium dome significantly enhances understanding of magnetism and eclipses, offering an interactive and shared immersive learning experience.

Contribution

It introduces a novel immersive teaching method using VR360 in a planetarium dome, improving comprehension of complex 3D scientific concepts.

Findings

Students and teachers nearly double their understanding of magnetism.

Seven eclipse animations were distributed to nearly 200 planetariums.

Interactive dome-based visualization enhances science learning.

Abstract

Previously we have shown that three-dimensional concepts are more readily learned in a three-dimensional context. Although VR headsets are growing in popularity, they only provide a quite limited field of view, and each person in a group may be viewing a different direction or a different time in the visualization. By using instead a fullsphere movie (VR360) in a planetarium dome instead of a headset, you can "share the VR"(TM) and specify which half of the sphere your audience is looking at. You can pause the movie, ask questions using a clicker system, display the results, and move on if the subject is mastered or explain more if items are not understood. This paper shows the results of teaching magnetism in a dome theater, showing that both students and teachers nearly double their understanding of magnetism topics after one viewing. We also created seven animations explaining eclipses that were distributed free to nearly 200 planetariums. Listing of concepts learned by teachers in our live eclipse program are shown.