INTEGRATION OF LEARNING THEORIES :: WEEK 4

SXEP 2108

Semester 1 2007/2008 Session

Group 3:
Choong Shiang Ee (SEP040019)
Daisy Lim Sze Sze (SEP040022)
Loke Pui Kuan (SEP040065)
Tan Peck Hiang (SEP040189)
Ting Hui Hui (SEP040193)
Wong Shye Nee (SEP040197)

A: 1.You have already analysed a movie to be used in the teaching and learning of

science. Read the notes given on virtual reality and explain briefly what virtual

reality elements were found in the movie that you have chosen.

You put on the special eyeglasses provided. The movie has started playing.

Suddenly the blank movie screen towering 5-storeys high that you were staring a

moment ago has disappeared- replaced rather by lush tropical green surrounding. You

can hear it all- birds chirping, mischievous primates playing, the water of a nearby

stream flowing, the sound of rustling leaves in a close distance. Suddenly two

butterflies with delicate wings of glorious colours float in circle in front of you. You

try to reach for them, but the exquisite creatures flew away. For a while, you forgot

you are actually sitting in an IMAX theatre in the middle of Kuala Lumpur. Thanks

to the internet, you can even experience rain forest right in front of your own

computer screen at

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/earthpulse/rainforest/index_flash-feature.html!
 Welcome to the world of Virtual Reality. It involves generally a computer

generated simulation- creating a three dimensional image or environment where users

can interact with using specialised electronic equipment. Besides used in the world of

entertainment, virtual reality has well made its way to educational training as well as

medical applications. We chose the 1993 movie “Jurassic Park” in our previous

assignment, which happens to be the pioneer of extraordinary realistic animation.

Although up to today, blockbuster movies do not actually fall into the category

of virtual reality due to the inability for audiences to interact with the characters or

surrounding inside, nevertheless Jurassic Park has managed to create a surreal

surrounding that have the audiences believing that they are in the dinosaur park as

well. The movie itself can be seen as a simulation, an element of virtual reality. Who

can forget the earlier part of the movie when audiences are treated to scenes where

dinosaurs roam the ground, feeding and socialising. It was as if audiences have been

blasted to prehistoric times and being able to feel the presence of the majestic,

mystifying giants that are extinct today.

 Artists, scientist and computer experts collaborated in making the movie

experience in Jurassic Park a success with details carefully inserted into the dinosaurs.

With the help of technology, every muscle movement downright to the texture of the

skins as concluded from real science research are displayed on each dinosaur.

Audiences have the benefit of seeing imagination and written theories on the beings

put to live and motion in the movie, together with their predicted nature in real life.

Then there is of course the scene where audiences are introduced to the

laboratory environment, with a tour lead by the founder himself where the creation of

dinosaurs from DNA extracted for the gut of the mosquitoes takes place. Scientists at

work are shown and the hatchery scene boasts birth of supposed-to-be extinct reptiles.

Surely one will take a second to reflect on the possibility and ponder on the limits of

science.

Let’s not forget the most exciting part of the movie when the dinosaurs went

out of hand and started to create disastrous havoc in the park. Audiences can feel the

horror and wrath of the gigantic lizards. It shows how genetic research can go awry
and nature of research products can be unpredictable or overlooked. When humans

tried to play God to bring back the creatures that should have disappeared from Earth,

they could be inviting trouble if undesired consequences were to surface. Being able

to experience this part of the movie, students are introduced to certain scientific

attitudes and noble values of curriculum specifications by Ministry of Education

Malaysia, such as, learning to be responsible for the safety of oneself, others and the

environment and to rethink the ethics issue in genetic application. It gets the

audiences thinking: if you were in the shoes of those people in the movie, will you

have chosen to use genetic technology to recreate dinosaurs in the first place?

Those are the virtual reality elements found in the movie, from the details of

the 3D animated dinosaurs that looked so real to the background of prehistoric era in

the park- the movie is surely a media for teaching and learning of science as it

provides simulation that we could only have imagined before.

Reference:

Virtual Reality. Retrieved July 29th, 2007 from

http://www.coe.uh.edu/visualville/vrtech.html
(1996, July). Animation is No Substitute for Virtual Reality. Retrieved

July 29th, 2007 from http://www.byte.com/art/9607/sec7/art7.htm

Corliss, R. (1993, April 26). Behind the Magic of Jurassic Park. Retrieved July

29th, 2007 from

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,978307-1,00.html