Enhancing creativity in synthetic biology with Interactive Virtual Environments

The objective of the work reported in this paper is to test 4 main hypotheses: (1) Interactive Virtual Environments (IVE) support and enhance students' creativity in synthetic biology; (2) The level of immersion of an IVE affects students' creativity in synthetic biology and a higher degree of immersion promotes higher creativity in synthetic biology; (3) Students creativity in synthetic biology can be measured; and (4) Immersive IVE are measurably more effective than current teaching methods for increasing creativity in synthetic biology. In the paper we describe the development of two virtual environments (which show two different degrees of immersion-2.5D and 3D) and we outline the evaluation and assessment plans that will be used to test the hypotheses. Although still under development, the project described in the paper provides a methodology using emerging technologies in computer graphics to teach creativity and domain-specific knowledge by integrating scientific inquiry with engineering design within IVE.