A virtual reality system for dissecting vertebrates with an observation function

Giving chances of hands-on experience is important for K-12 education, in order to make students obtain deep understanding. However, there is less opportunities of such experience in science education in Japan, due to some reasons. Therefore, in this paper, a virtual reality system is proposed with which the students can interactively experiment the dissection of vertebrate animals. Through a series of four stages in VR space, the proposed system provides a learner to learn the inner structure of the animal and the procedure of the dissection. Also giving the haptic sense in use of the vibration on the hand controllers, the system represents difference between alive and dead, so that the learner has a chance to think of the animal ethics.