Cellscape Explorer takes students inside cells to experience the structures and processes of cell biology. For professors and instructors, Cellscape Explorer is designed to be:

A Lecturing Tool

It will allow professors or instructors to guide students through a tour of cellular processes from near-infinite perspectives within the cell. A Virtual Laboratory

Professors or instructors can customize certain aspects of the lesson they want emphasize during a laboratory session. They will also have the ability to alter certain aspects of the cellular environment such as increasing temperature, changing pH or introducing chemicals.

Empowering Self-Directed Learning

Students can access Cellscape Explorer at any time from outside the classroom via the internet. In addition, students can be tested in the same environment they learned in-through Cellscape Explorer's customizable testing module.

For students, Cellscape Explorer is designed to be:

A Virtual Laboratory

Students will be able to explore cell biology in a whole new way-from within a virtual animated cell, the design of which is based on the most current scientific information. Users will be able to directly interact with cellular processes to see and experience how they function.

Supportive of Different Learning Styles

All students learn differently. Using Cellscape Explorer students have the option to learn though graphics, script and audio narration. Lessons can be paused, replayed or experienced from a completely different perspective.

A Replacement for Textbooks

Through upgrades, Cellscape Explorer's virtual cell and large internet database will be kept up-to-date with the most current scientific information. In addition, Cellscape Explorer supports chat functions with other users and offers access to online supplementary information which can be printed for hardcopy. Biology occurs in three dimensions and in real time; a reality best conveyed through computers, not textbooks.

Interactive Learning with Cellscape Explorer

The Need for Cellscape Explorer

Cell biology includes seemingly abstract concepts that are difficult to communicate through traditional teaching practices. By using state-of-the-art computer gaming technology, we are augmenting current teaching practices by replacing the traditional use of textbooks and lectures with the Cellscape Explorer environment, giving users a realistic and detailed experience of the inner workings of the cell.

Our software is designed to function in the physical classroom and e-classroom (distance education) environments as a tool for educators and students, based on guided and self-directed learning.

Impact of interactive experiences in the classroom

Established cell biology education practices are not ideal teaching methods for this subject. A system that can provide auditory, written, and graphical renditions of the same concept will support the strengths of every student, including those with learning disabilities, language barriers, and deficient educational backgrounds.

The content of Cellscape Explorer will parallel current first-year university cell biology curriculums, and serve students and educators as a supplemental teaching tool and possible replacement for textbooks. By consolidating graphic, written, and auditory information with an intuitive user interface, we can provide students and educators with a teaching-tool that can be accessed through CD ROM, the internet, during classrooms lectures, and in laboratory sessions.

Solutions & Benefits

A Complete Solution for teaching cell biology

Cellscape Explorer is designed to be a complete solution for teaching cell biology. The final goal is to build a complete cell biology course composed of 10 to 15 modules, where each module will represent a specific topic in the cell. The module approach will allow the course to be customized to specific institutions who wish to emphasize specific topics in their course.

This software will exist in two linked forms. The first is composed of the virtual cell or cellscape, where students are guided on specific lessons within the cell or free to explore the cell on their own. The second form links the virtual cell to a large internet database of complete information on the cell and its components, a timeline of discovery, community chat rooms, current literature and links to researchers around the world.

The user experience: interactive experiences in the classroom.

The cellscape environment is richly detailed with colour, movement and sound giving the user a pleasing yet realistic sense of being inside a cell. Users will be able to witness cellular processes and interact with organelles, protein complexes and structural components. Events in the cell are always in motion, based on the constant forward movement of the cell cycle clock.

Users will have full control over their spatial and temporal activities. More plainly, they will be able to experience a process, stop, rewind, and review it from different perspectives. A wire frame "map mode" built into the software allows for easy navigation to specific lessons, organelles, and cellular processes. The cellscape will also be an experimental environment for use in a laboratory session. For example, users will be able to alter the temperature or pH and observe what changes occur in the cell. Students will learn and can be tested in this environment. Instructors will be able to customizes certain paths through the cellscape and induce specific changes to test students understanding of the material.

A library of information

The online database will be designed as an information reservoir and a community node for all Cellscape Explorer users. Users can access the database through the software or independently through the internet. The database will house textbooks worth of information on the cell, timelines of discovery, information on the global perspective of cell sciences and student chat groups. Excessive amounts of information on cell biology exists on the internet and this database will partially act as a node for users to find all this information. Specifically, the database will identify researchers and institutions who are currently doing research in specific areas of cell biology.