Science Zone : An Augmented Reality based Mobile Application for Science

Abstract

In recent years, technology has rapidly developed, and it has provided many technological advancements for the field of education with an attempt to improve and overcome its limitations. Augmented Reality is among these latest technologies which support to improve learning environment around the world. It can bring education to a new level which can help students in many significant ways. In Sri Lanka, augmented reality is rarely been used for the purpose of educational enhancements. Therefore, it was decided to develop an augmented reality embedded mobile application for the G.C.E Ordinary Level Students in order to make it easy for them to learn Science with more enthusiasm and interest. This research has been used marker-based approach to transmit images or objects in the text book into the real-world scenes in order to create a more productive learning environment for the students. The first version of the application covers four main areas in the Science curriculum, such as; Preparation of Acids, Human Anatomy, Organization of Plants and Biosphere Cycles. Feedback for the application was taken from randomly selected ten science teachers and twenty grade eleven students and accordingly the application was further developed. Their feedback proves that the application would satisfy the common requirements of students, and it would be an immense support in scoring good results for science.