Enhancing Astronomy Education: Demonstrating Astronomical Phenomena using Immersive 3D Learning Experiences

Current astronomy education resources, especially illustrations and figures, are generally limited in 2D, falling short in providing students the chance to grasp the underlying concepts of fundamentally 3D phenomena, leading to misconceptions. To address these limitations, we propose the creation of a set of physically accurate 3D visualizations. We aim to transform astronomy education, offering an immersive learning experience that aligns with the expectations of both students and instructors. The project's initial phase involves soliciting student feedback towards existing astronomy education resources. This feedback will be used in further efforts to create immersive demonstrations that are tailored to undergraduate astronomy students. Subsequently, we will study student response to evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed 3D visualizations, gauging their impact on learning outcomes, student motivation, and engagement. Ultimately, this research seeks to bridge the gap between the static 2D world of traditional astronomy education and the 3D universe, offering a promising avenue for enhancing astronomy pedagogy and inspiring a new generation of scientists.