Software Development for Performing Physics Laboratory Work in Virtual Reality

Laboratory work is an integral part of the study of physics in institutions of general and additional education in Russia. Experiments allow you to experience practical work that is not replaced by other elements of the educational program. But this success in training comes at a price: from the point of view of teachers, organizational efforts and care of laboratory equipment are significant and require the involvement of additional personnel – laboratory assistants. The work is devoted to solving the problems that teachers face when conducting laboratory work in physics at school: cheating, high pedagogical and bureaucratic workload, low motivation of students, biased assessment system. To reduce the negative impact of these factors on the educational process, software will be developed – laboratory work in physics in virtual reality. Within the framework of the work, the analysis of scientific and technical information on the design of educational experience in virtual reality was carried out. The strengths of the technology and methods of enhancing positive effects, as well as the risks associated with the introduction of VR in schools and ways to level them, are revealed. During a series of comparative analyses, the best development methods for the project implementation were selected. During the practical part of the work in the Unity game engine, software was designed that allows you to perform all the laboratory work provided for in the curriculum of general education institutions in 3 sections of physics: "Heat Transfer”, “Radiation” and "Electricity". The mechanics and algorithms are written in the C# programming language. The software is optimized for standalone virtual reality devices and is completely safe for use by teenagers. The volume of the text of the final qualifying work was 87 pages. The number of tables – 8, illustrations – 65, sources used – 63.