Decades of cognitive and educational research have demonstrated that visual-spatial skills are strong predictors of student success in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and may influence some of the most important choices that students make – ranging from their declared majors to the decision on whether or not to pursue advanced degrees and careers in the STEM field. The ability to reason with spatial information is especially important for conceptual subjects like chemistry, a deep understanding of which requires dealing with the invisible world of atoms and molecules and linking microscopic properties to macroscopic observables and, thus, relies on strong mental visualization skills. However, conveying molecular and atomic level information to students is notoriously difficult, and educators often rely on students’ innate ability to visualize and manipulate objects in 3D without acknowledging that it is a skill that needs to be developed. Virtual reality (VR) may alleviate the problem by leveraging the proximity effect and can create truly immersive learning experiences for students with weak visualization skills. To explore the effectiveness of VR enhanced instruction on student learning in general chemistry, while simultaneously promoting collaborative research on the campus of Utah Valley University, we have built a cross-disciplinary team consisting of students with complementary backgrounds in Digital Media, Computer Engineering/Computer Science, Physics, Biotechnology, and Chemistry. During the project, the students have worked together to assemble the multi-component VR-enhanced molecular visualization systems, to develop VR instructional materials using the Unity game development platform and molecular modeling packages, and to conduct an exploratory study on the effectiveness of VR on learning of abstract and hard-to-comprehend physicochemical concepts. In this talk, we will share the results of the project, as well as discuss the advantage of engaging undergraduate students with different academic backgrounds in research that lies at the crossroads of multiple technical fields and disciplines.

Engaging undergraduate students with virtual reality in both classroom and research

ACS Fall 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.