Story-based virtual experiment environment

Abstract

Science education is important for students developing critical thinking skills. How to engage students in science learning becomes an important issue. This research aims to design a virtual laboratory for students practicing science process skills. Moreover, the virtual laboratory uses story to raise students’ learning motivation and uses a problem-solving procedure to navigate students while solving scientific problems. To verify the usefulness of the virtual laboratory, this research has conducted an experiment with 31 grade-10 participants. The experiment results show that students believe the virtual laboratory is useful for them in learning Physics. Since students’ past Physics grades do not influence their intention of using the virtual laboratory, the story-based virtual laboratory can help both of low and high academic students in science learning and assist them establish their science process skills.