» “Animated Neuroscience and the Actions of Nicotine, Cocaine, and Marijuana in the Brain” 3-D animated video
This 25 minute 3-D animated video created by Gayle Gross de Nunez and Rochelle D. Schwartz-Bloom demonstrates how neurons function and the cellular actions of nicotine, cocaine, and THC. The video won a 1998 CINE Golden Eagle and has been recommended for viewing by the AAAS Science Books & Films. Useful for high school biology, psychology, or health classes, drug educators, health practitioners, police departments, nursing students, physician’s assistant students, etc. Available in DVD and streaming formats, including a downloadable teacher’s guide from Films for the Humanities and Sciences. Animated Neuroscience
» “DiVE into Alcohol” A Virtual Reality Journey into the Body
This web-based interactive 3D virtual experience to help students learn how alcohol gets absorbed into the body and chemically changed into a toxic substance. Developed first for use in the Duke immersive Virtual Environment (DiVE) on Duke’s campus, the program was also designed for interactive online use by the general public (AP Chemistry, College Chemistry, Biochemistry, Organic Chemistry). The user travels into the body to follow alcohol molecules through the gastrointestinal tract to the liver. There, the user controls the chemical reaction called oxidation, moving molecules in 3D space. It’s the next best thing to “being there”.
To see the DiVE into Alcohol program, click HERE.
A tutorial guide for teachers accompanies the online program: DiVE Into Alcohol Tutorial
» Smoking and How it Changes the Brain
An adventure in the Duke Immersive Virtual Environment
Developed with SEDAPA funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse
This web-based interactive 3D virtual experience will help students learn how smoking cigarettes changes the brain. Developed using virtual reality software that runs the Duke Immersive Virtual Environment (DiVE) , the program is completely interactive for use online by the general public, including high school students in biology, health education, or even neuroscience.
Travel into the avatar’s brain to the “reward pathway”. There, you will interact with nicotine molecules to learn how smoking changes receptors for nicotine on the neurons that provide pleasurable feelings. You’ll take a ride along the reward pathway..woo-hoo! It’s the next best thing to “being there”.
The interactive version of this program is no longer active due to the lack of a current 3DVIA plug-in. Instead, a non-interactive can be accessed by watching a short movie from the perspective of a gamer already inside the DiVE (all interactivity has already been performed by a gamer inside the DiVE). The viewer sees the gamer’s actual interactions with objects.
The video: To see what a “gamer” is actually seeing and doing while using the program inside the DiVE, click here.