Virtual and Augmented Reality and Science Teaching

Abstract

This article presents Virtual and Augmented Reality (RVA), with an approach to the main concepts used by this technological area. It provides an overview of educational software made with RVA, exclusively aimed at teaching science, generated by research groups from Brazilian universities and the world, published in the main existing digital databases or in their own repositories, which is a common practice. in large institutions. Emphasis was given to approaches in the teaching-learning context, theories and pedagogical lines used by these groups in the design and use of these educational software. We searched directly in the portals of the first 100 universities placed in the world ranking (Center for World University Rankings - CWUR), as well as in the 20 most used databases in Brazil and in the world. Some tools were known to the authors of this article and for this reason they were accessed directly on the internet without searching a database. The work brings specific discussions in the final considerations, mainly, reflections on the absence of computational information as the adopted programming language, use of specialized platforms in Virtual Reality applications and others. The software that will be presented does not provide technical information, aiming at the socialization and engagement of new developers or the creation of customized versions, even though they are educational and non-commercial visualization objects in most cases. This is probably the main reason for the paltry amount of RVA tools aimed at science teaching, compared to the entertainment industries, for example.