Development of a virtual butterfly ecological system based on augmented reality and mobile learning technologies

A campus butterfly garden is a useful teaching resource for studying insect ecology because students can learn about a butterfly's life cycle and become familiar with its habitual behavior by breeding and observation activities. However, it requires professional construction and maintenance for sustainable development, so very few schools can afford to own a butterfly garden. In this study, the augmented reality and mobile learning technologies have been used to develop a virtual butterfly ecological system by combining with campus host plants and virtual breeding activities. Students can use smart phones or tablet PCs to breed virtual butterflies on host plants and observe their life cycles at different growing stages. Using the available space in campus, a virtual butterfly garden can also be created as a greenhouse where students are able to observe different species of butterflies using the tracking telescope and catch a butterfly to obtain its information by touch-screen control. The virtual butterfly ecological system can increase the learning motivation and interest of students through virtual breeding and observation activities, so it is a suitable assistant tool for science education. A teaching experiment has been conducted to investigate students' learning effectiveness and attitudes after using the system, and the results show that using the virtual butterfly ecological system can improve their learning effectively.