The Application of Virtual Reality in Environmental Education: Model Design and Course Construction

With the increasingly depravation of Earth environment, environmental education is gaining more and more concern all over the world. The potential value of virtual reality technology in environmental education is analyzed. A metaphor-based generic architecture of virtual reality systems as environmental learning tools is proposed. A vivid example of ecosystem simulation is presented, and the students´ attitudes towards educational virtual environments are studied. The statistic data show that the application of virtual reality in environmental education can not only raise educational quality, but also solve some existing problems on environmental experiments.