The Heart Hubs Experience was deployed to students as an optional and supplementary experience following the heart anatomy lab. Students were provided an initial link to a tutorial space to become familiar with how to navigate using the keyboard and mouse. Following the tutorial, students clicked a link to enter the experience.
The experience begins at a platform external to and with a view of the anterior surface of the heart. An informational panel describes the 4 chambers and reviews how to navigate the space. A link teleports users into the right atrium. Within the heart, users can walk along a platform that connects the right atrium to the right ventricle through the tricuspid valve, looking around and appreciating the key internal structures. From the platform in the right ventricle, users look up at the pulmonary valve where they find a link to continue through the experience.
The link from the pulmonary valve brings users to a platform external to the heart with a view of the pulmonary trunk. At that platform an informational panel describes the structure and function of the semilunar valves that make up the pulmonary and aortic valve. Students then link to another external platform with the view of the base of the heart, predominately the left ventricle, with the pulmonary veins shown as well. An informational panel reviews the spatial relationships of the structures of the hila of the left and right lungs. From this platform there is a link to teleport into the left atrium.
From the left atrium students are able to walk along a platform that extends through the mitral valve into the left ventricle. As with the right side of the heart, all internal key structures are modeled and labeled. A link at the aortic valve in the left ventricle teleports users to the final external platform of the heart with a view of the great vessels. One informational panel reviews the branches of the aorta while another describes the distribution of the coronary arteries. Students are finally instructed to enter fly mode, allowing them to navigate the space without being bound to the created platforms. In fly mode they are able to navigate around the external surface of the heart to appreciate the coronary arteries in situ.
Experience it yourself below. This is a live virtual room so, other visitors may join you.