History Zone

Zoning in on Physics is the culmination of four student design teams' efforts to implement a Steppingstones to Technology Grant to George Mason University and its Helen A. Kellar Center for Human DisAbilities by the U.S. Department of Education, Offices of Special Education Technology and Media Services for Individuals with Disabilities.

The project has as its foundation research on the impact of virtual reality learning environments in teaching science to learning disabled students. That research emanated from Project Science Space, a joint research project undertaken by George Mason University, the University of Houston and NASA's Johnson Space Center. That project, as well as Zoning in on Physics, are part of the University's Project DEVISE (Designing Environments for Virtual Immersive Science Education). To visit Project Science Space, including information on Newton World, Maxwell World and Pauling World, click on the DEVISE link on the left.

The target audience for this program, which demonstrates Newton's laws of motion, is learning disabled physics students. Though it was designed with high school students as the primary target audience, the environment may be used as a tool with students of any age.