Lyra Virtual World Environment (Lyra VWE): Educational Applications in Agriculture and Natural Resources

A prototype virtual world environment (VWE), called the Lyra VWE, has been developed to demonstrate a variety of educational applications of VWE technology in agriculture and natural resources. This Web-based environment will allow students to go on-line to explore various 3D worlds. VWEs support multiple users, and students and instructions can interact and work collaboratively within these on-line environments. Most of the prototypes described here are virtual laboratories in which students can interact with 3D, simulation-driven learning experiences of biological and physical systems modeled after real laboratories. Examples include a greenhouse, a forest, 3D soil map, a food packaging machine, molecular shapes, and a visual dictionary. Lyra VWE is based on Java technology, and utilizes an object database platform (Lyra) common to several information systems being used in IFAS (UF’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources) including EDIS and the IFAS Extension on-line Training Portal (ExtensionU).