Towards Teaching Secondary School Physics in an Immersive 3D Game Environment

Laboratory exercises are an important part of secondaryschool physics classes that make an important contribution tostudent learning. Virtual laboratories have the advantage ofallowing experiments that might be too dangerous or too costly inthe real world. We present Gary’s Lab, an experimental immersive3D laboratory environment using computer game technology.Our system allows students considerable freedom in constructingapparatus, and running qualitative and quantitative experimentsusing that apparatus. We argue that the process of constructingexperiments in interesting contexts might be expected to helpstudents engage with their lessons, focusing their attention on theapparatus and the methods of measurement used