VR as an educational tool

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought forth the shortcomings associated with remote learning, especially for underrepresented minority (URM) students. Technological advances that improve the student learning experience are urgently needed. Similar to how tablets and iPads have revolutionalized learning, virtual reality (VR) will play an increasingly important role in education. While advantages of using complementary VR tools are well-established in the literature, specific studies focused on Chemistry education are still limited. Specifically, the 3-D immersive learning environments, which include audio, video, and haptic feedback are especially well-suited for teaching fundamental concepts in chemistry (e.g. atomic and crystal structure, chirality, etc.) Supported by Prof Kulkarni's NSF CAREER Award, we have started (thinking about) developing Virtual Reality (VR) modules for improving chemistry education at the high-school and undergraduate levels. Specifically, we have collected student (Winter 2021, ECH152B class) feedback to guide our development. A summary of students' suggestions and their complete responses are presented below.

Summary

"Hands-on" visualization of chiral molecules, stereoisomers, charge distributions, orbital shapes, and hybridizations
Reaction mechanisms (e.g., SN1 vs. SN2)
Performing experiments in a virtual lab environment
Interactive learning of phase diagrams and equilibria

Based on our expertise, we will focus on #1 and #2 for our initial prototypes.

Student responses

Prompt: How could VR be used to teach chemistry? Please provide suggestions at the high-school and at the college level? Do you see applications in thermo, kinetics etc? If so, how?

Student answers:

College level organic chemistry. Like for constructing molecules to name them or drawing the electron paths during reactions or the group order thing that is don’t really remember what it is called but i hope you know what im referring too.
I believe that showing videos of reactors and explaining the components would be a helpful addition to this course. ASPEN is good but seeing how the reactor operates would be a great addition.
Giving this some thought. I think molecular orbitals and VSEPR can be really helpful to see visually in VR. Being able to see up close the nodes of a molecular orbital or being able to build your own 3D molecules in VR for VSEPR could give somebody a hands on approach if they are a more physical learner versus an auditory. VR could also be used to show chemical reactions to people that may not be able to go into a lab, sick, homeschooled or hospitalized individuals. It could help them get a hands on experience that they may never get to experience.
I can only think of obvious things like geometry/VESPER , this would especially useful for hybridization of orbitals. Redox reactions/electroplating: watching electrons flow and metal ions either going into or out of solution. Stereochemistry in O-chem enantiomers, diastereomers, Neuman projections, all of that type of things; ring expansions/contractions , bonding: watching SN2 inversions etc. It also could be useful for "particle in a box" type of models in p-chem.
I think VR could be used to teach chemistry by possibly doing labs which would be on more extreme ends of reactions but that would be helpful to visualize reactions as they are happening. For example, if there is a reaction that can be dangerous such as by releasing toxic fumes but is also helpful to understand a particular topic in chemistry, then VR would allow the student to see the reaction or even try performing it, yet there would be no possible dangers. This is especially helpful with younger or beginning students that are less experienced, but eager to learn. It would also help them visualize lab techniques because sometimes reading the lab manuals, or watching videos was not helpful enough and this would help people be more acquainted with what they are doing. I also think VR would be very helpful in visualizing molecules because when you are learning about things such stereochemistry, understanding how molecules interact with each other based on their molecular structure is really important. I personally found stereochemistry to be difficult to understand without actually being able to see a 3D examples of the different categorizations of molecules. And this allows students to have an intuition of how different species will react when together.
A huge part of chemistry that VR might help conceptualize is bonds between atoms and they're differences. I think an interactive model that allows students to play around with different bonds might help them understand when certain bonds are used and the differences in strength/length. Besides that it might be interesting to see how reactors operate on a molecular level, be that chemical or nuclear.
When it comes to chemistry, I always learned the most by being able to physically do the labs and seeing experiments in person. I've heard that some people are trying to use VR as a way to make lab stimulations more realistic. In other words, they let students conduct the experiments and do the process through VR. I personally haven't tried, but I know for me that would've been best. VR is a great way to show and experience certain properties or applications without the expense or safety concerns that doing it in person may pose, depending on the circumstances. I don't really see how else VR can really be applied.
One of the biggest barriers to entry for chemistry is how abstract it is. Creating virtual spaces where students can interact with "tangible" versions of chemical processes or zoom in to the nanoscale to see visualizations of these processes occur right in front of them could be invaluable for creating an exciting chemistry experience for students learning the subject for the first time.
I personally have never used VR, and have only seen videos of others using it. Regarding chemistry topics, I think it would be especially useful in helping students visualize electron orbital shapes, basic hybridization scheme representations, and other physical chemistry topics of the sort. I could also see VR being used a supplements to lab exercises/ quick demonstrations that would have otherwise been performed in class. For example, visual programs showing students a more physical representation of how T-xy and P-xy diagrams work when changing pressure and temperature would help. This can be extended to pretty must all equilibrium models. In particular, having a visualization of all the phases present under a certain P/T, and having students adjust these conditions and be able to see the resulting phase shifts/ equilibrium states would help a lot.
I believe that VR would be very useful in organic chemistry and physical chemistry. In organic chemistry VR could be used to visualize the stereochemistry of molecules and the specific reaction mechanisms. For example, VR could simulate how molecules react in an SN2 reaction to gain a better understanding of the mechanism, but also give insight on which types of molecules participate in the reaction. VR would also be useful in showing what reactions are favored for different sets of molecular species (thermodynamics). It could also be used to visualize how quickly different reactions occur (reaction kinetics). An important part of physical chemistry is group theory. It is important to know how group operations change the orbitals of atoms in molecules. This can sometimes be challenging to visualize and being able to see the operations done in a VR simulation could be rather helpful.
The best application I see for VR in chemistry is in organic chemistry. Being able to "handle" molecular structures to get a more 3D perspective on stereoisomerism and such could be very helpful for people who struggle to visualize shapes. VR could also potentially be used in genchem (in remote learning situations) because those labs (e.g. electrolytic cells) are relatively easy to simulate, and it would be a much better substitute than just watching videos.
i think that VR would be very helpful for those of us who are lab motivated? I enjoy my time in the lab and honestly love every moment i get doing experiments. Running NMRs running IR doing distillations but i cant exactly learn while someone shows me it would help if I was in the space actually doing it because realistically it is what will be expected of us when we get jobs. VR would at least help us bridge the gap from people showing us very forgettable lab videos to actually creating a memorable experience in the lab. Realistically if VR was used in the class room I think it would be easier to use it for organics or even running aspen (as actually setting up the separator, experiment) I think it would be more difficult as it pertains to this class especially because it requires a lot of math which in my opinion couldn't be helped with VR. I think the best application would be as a simulated lab environment.
I believe that using VR could definitely help with stereochemistry. It is very difficult to visualize this and the kits we use in class is helpful but it is not easy to always carry around and use anywhere. Even with visualization of cells, it would be beneficial to be able to see the exact size of the structures and how they function in real time. In thermodynamics, concepts can become more tangible if we were able to create a simulation of experiments. We can be placed into a lab of some sort and be able to adjust temperature, add fluids and other parameters like in a real life lab. This could be applied to observe, for example, flash calculations, and azeotropes.
It depends specifically what you mean by virtual reality, but in the chem 2A series I found it helpful to use different computer programs(such as chemdraw) to represent the molecule in three dimensions, it was quite helpful with concepts that require you to rotate or envision the molecules. I also enjoyed using aspen this quarter and found it pretty straightforward. In chemical engineering we use python quite a lot and I think it is very rewarding when you're able to connect the code to the concept. However, there have been a couple instances where I felt the code became too complex so the concept behind it got lost in translation. This made it felt more like a coding class than a chemistry class. I would recommend with any new type of technology, build off the basics and provide a lot of examples and tutorials to help guide students.
VR can be used to demonstrate experiments. Especially with online learning, VR can help recreate labs that cannot be done in person which will be more interactive than just videos. VR can also be used to demonstrate chemical reactions that could be too dangerous to be performed in person. It can also be used to show how VLE diagrams work by showing the liquid transforming into a vapor or vice versa.
When I hear VR I think of oculus, and how they can be used for labs since we don't have in person labs right now. I was thinking to allow the students to hear directions and apply them using oculus. Also by using VR it allows for less chemical waste from labs. From working in the labs I know that kids make mistakes all of the time with waste and just poor it down the sink instead of actually learning about the waste. :)
VR can be a useful tool in terms of performing lab experiments, especially in schools that don't have access to lab materials/equipment. I feel that applications of thermo and kinetics may be integrated into these experiments.
I believe an difficult concept of chemistry are chemical structures. In high-school level chemistry and entry level college chemistry (AP Chem/CHE2 Series), students struggle to visualize molecular and electron geometry. Thinking about chemistry in a 3D microscopic point of view proves to be difficult. There are hundreds of kits online and hundreds of videos that try to explain these concepts; however, I believe that it could extremely beneficial for students to be able to play around with molecular and electron geometry through VR. For example, students could build CH4, and view the tetrahedral shape, or students could build water molecules and understand why a water molecule has a bent structure. This simple yet effective idea can also be applied in the organic chemistry level. Several reactions involve chair confirmations and flips that I know I personally struggled with a lot.
I think that VR could be helpful for inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, and physical chemistry - specifically in the rotation and transformations of molecules. At the high school level, it could help for keeping track of the atoms in a reaction and how they shift around. At the college level, it would be helpful for the higher level classes where organic chemistry begins to take hold.
I see VR as applicable to teaching chemistry in that it could be used to simulate a lab setting. This would be beneficial for students who learn better visually than other ways. VR also opens opportunity for an interactive learning experience.
Chemistry laboratory simulations have given rise since the COVID-19 outbreak, and having a computer do all lab procedures for you can seem helpful in understanding the fundamentals of chemistry. This concept can be extended into VR. A simulation like Labster could be implemented into VR and feeling of being able to do hands-on activities without physically being in lab is a promising scenario, as it leads to opportunities to do more risky-type labs.
Honestly, VR can just make things feel more realistic. Being able to see demonstrations or representations of molecules in a 3D space can help understand interactions more easily. It could also be used as an optional prep for lab work, as you could see what you would need to do and get a similar feeling as if you were doing the lab. Seeing demos without needing to look over someones shoulder or from too far away could help lower any chance of misunderstandings going into a complicated or less intuitive lab
Lab would probably be the most useful application of VR to show labs that are not accessible to students or too advanced for the students to complete themselves. It could also be used in demonstrations of reactions and chemical processes.
I'm not really sure how VR could be used to teach chemistry since this is really the first time I am hearing of it. However, I think it would be very engaging to those who can use it since it is interactive and not in the sense of clicking buttons on some website to simulate a reaction or something. I think it would be easier to start using VR in high schools since the experiments done would be less complicated but if applied to the college level, it would probably save a lot of money by not having to buy so many materials for labs and it would definitely be safer since there are not really any hazards of VR.
VR might be used in virtual labs?
VR could be used for online lab demonstrations. As online education becomes more common, I think it is important to replicate a real lab experience. I am not sure about specific applications for thermo, but anything related a lab demonstration would be very useful.
In my experience, students have a lot of trouble visualizing objects in 3D space. In high school, I think VR would greatly benefit students' understanding of naming conventions. A lot of my peers in my high school chemistry class had a difficult time visualizing different orientations and generally what was happening when a reaction was described. A lot of people know that chemicals don't just swap out letters with each other but I think their understanding would benefit from seeing things like substitution reactions in 3D space. In college some topics, such as thermo and kinetics, would benefit from being able to be presented and manipulated in 3D space. Flash point, for example, requires an understanding of vapor-liquid equilibrium but VLE isn't exactly something you can see. It may be difficult to demonstrate a flash point separation in a glass reactor in real life but there would be no such restraint in VR. With colorful indicators for each component, it would be possible to show the effects of pressure and temperature on the vapor and liquid compositions as well as the VLE. In college, as opposed to high school, most of our understanding is derived from graphical representations of change and, while we may gain a mathematical intuition about a topic, it isn't always easy to gain a physical understanding of a topic.
I think VR could be best used to help teach organic chemistry. I'm not entirely sure if it could be useful in thermo or kinetics too much, but in terms of learning reactions and mechanisms in organic chemistry, I believe animations seen in VR could be very helpful for students. A lot of students are told to buy stick and ball models to help them in organic chemistry, but personally I feel that if the mechanisms for reactions could be seen in an animation, it would be much more helpful for students to relate what they see on paper to what they are seeing in VR. Since many times organic chemistry is limited to how well we can draw 3-D figures on paper, I think things like stereochemistry and chirality, and overall just reactions could be much easier to visualize when you see animations of the models in VR. Also, organic chemistry is pretty reliant on memorizing reaction agents, and I think that using VR could potentially make remembering reaction agents easier, since it is more "video-game-like".
Very helpful for when you're groggy and not ready to learn, can learn when you've woken up fully and can revisit topics you hadn't fully understood yet. Also, since the travel barrier is none existent, getting help is much easier to obtain. I think the only barrier to VR becoming a mainstream method of learning is the mental cue to focus one usually has when stepping into a lecture hall or library. This is going to sound very counter-intuitive, but being able to converse with your friends during the lectures, even if it isn't currently about the lecture at hand has helped me learn the material quicker.
VR could be cool for organic chemistry and manipulating molecules. It would also be cool to use to see how chemistry, thermo, kinetics, etc applies to the real world by having virtual field trips or labs.
I think VR would be very awesome for teaching chemistry since it would give a great visual aid. For example, VR can show what actually happens in molecular level during a reaction. For organic chemistry, seeing molecules' different orientations in 3D would be super helpful.
A friend of mine is taking general chemistry at a community college and he had to use a lab simulation called Labster that taught him safety and more in the laboratory environment. The simulation is interactive but only in the form of clicking on objects. There is no interactive movement. The labs are shown in first person, so it should benefit more from VR. The website (labster.com) has labs for chemistry, physics, biology, engineering, and medicine. There are thermodynamic labs in the chemistry section. I do believe kinetics and even fluid mechanics can be taught through VR labs like these as well.
My old high school did not offer chemistry labs because the school did not have the resources and the space. I think VR could be used as a virtual lab where a chemistry lab could be simulated, with the whole laboratory set up. Although actual in lab experience is invaluable, I think if my high school had a VR chemistry lab it would have helped me prepare for college chemistry labs as I have an idea of where things are, what the layout of a lab is like and different equipment used in the lab. Also for chemistry, I think this would be great to show orbitals and in organic chemistry seeing stereochemistry and how reactions and mechanisms work in a 3D sense. For thermo, I think it would be really interesting to see examples of osmosis or reverse osmosis in VR.
I think it's a good idea but not sure if it's applicable. Because people may not willing to "sacrifice" their time to some new technologies of teaching. I think doing some virtual lab using VR will be interested to most people. Ideally, we can even conduct researches anywhere we want using VR. But I don't think using VR to teach class materials is a good idea. Theories can be better represent on the ppt or handwriting. I haven't see any applications in thermo.
VR could be used to teach chemistry/thermo/kinetics by demonstrating the observable forms of reactions which otherwise could not be performed in a lab or lecture due to a lack of equipment or perhaps the reaction is too dangerous. I know I was a lot more interested in CHE 2C when I saw a small amount of cesium react with water. Absolutely with thermodynamics, this quarter I took ECH 145A and I got very little out of the "lab" videos. Yes I know they're just demonstrations but I got very little from watching segments of someone else performing the lab. Hands on is the way to go and I don't see myself being presented in front of a continuous distillation column knowing how to work the software and valves. Thanks Covid for that one. Yes, but in all seriousness I see quite a bit of applications for VR in the chemical engineering department especially with alternative styles of learning on the rise.
VR education are more flexible but require better self control. It is definitely a good but challenging trend for all of us.
I've always found that visualizing molecular geometries and atomic rearrangements during chemical reactions (like with transition states) is especially challenging, and VR could be a way to combat this. Some may argue that ball-and-stick models do a good job for visualizing geometries, but VR just offers more learning opportunities, such as modeling reactions. There is VR software can show how different bonds form/break and what products form, providing a very immersive experience for learning how certain reactions occur. There is even some VR software that can simulate experiments, such as Unity 3D, which was tested at a high school. Various experiments could be performed without the need for PPE and precautions against toxic byproducts or other hazards, and in the current age of virtual learning, this could serve as a valuable lab experience for students. VR can also be used in thermo to analyze how systems change with perturbations. 152A and 152B had a lot of "thought experiments" where various parameters, like pressure or solute concentration, where altered, and VR could be used to better visualize the results of these alterations. Sources: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/bk-2019-1318.ch003 https://medium.com/fielddaylab/from-abstract-to-hands-on-using-vr-to-teach-thermodynamics-b9ba78c73404
For chemistry VR would be good for visualizing molecular structures and Lewis-Dot diagrams. Practically, anything that requires visualization in chemistry would benefit greatly from VR. For thermo, VR would be great for visualizing and understanding saturation pressure, bubble point pressure, the two phase region of VLE, dew point pressure, TXY, PXY diagrams. It may also come in handing when analyzing flash units (at least what is going on inside the units themselves). Again, anything that requires visualization would greatly benefit from VR.
I am not an VR expert and I also don't have one but for my experience with VR (I have borrowed someone else the whole set and play video games with it), having VR will be really cool but there will be a lot of issues and I doubt VR tech can replace the lab or other stuffs in school at the moment. Still, it can be a huge supplemental thing to study. Most video games I saw in VR looked very simple (although it felt very real), and to interact I needed a huge space. It also costs a lot for the goggles, not even mentioning the whole set (although much less than college textbooks, but I normally pirate textbooks). Probably, I think it can help to do the lab by having the TA do it or instruct it in their POV in real lab as sometimes I feel like don't asking some questions in front of everyone. A whole simulation can be great but I am not sure it's easy to make it good and similar to real lab. VR is cool, and I would watch something in VR goggle than watch a video.
Personally, I have not used VR at any capacity. From my understanding of what VR does, I would assume it would be very helpful in organic chemistry and quantum mechanics (at the college level). For high school chemistry, I could imagine VR being used to understand atom/molecules different molecular structures, maybe lewis dot structures, and balancing reactions (stoichiometry). If I remember high school chem accurately, there is also oxidation and reduction reactions where it could be beneficial to observe the exchange of electrons. Even more basic than high school, just phase changes in matter could be something VR might be used. For college gen chem, I could see VR be used for electron orbital shapes and the planes. This would also apply to quantum mechanics such as understanding particle in a box or vibrational states. I haven't taken any process design classes yet, but I'm picturing some form of interactive aspen interface. For thermo (or material balances) visualizing those distillation processes or reactors that result in vapor-liquid equilibrium would be a cool intro. I could be misinterpreting the abilities of VR, but these are the classes I have taken that I could imagine sorts of interactive images of the concepts that are difficult to visualize when they're just drawn on paper or explained verbally.
I feel like it could be pretty cool to implement VR to teach chemistry labs that are typically more dangerous so that students can still experience the lab without the hazards. I've seen videos of people having to attend "virtual labs" during COVID where they click around the lab to perform the experiment, and it looks pretty boring. I feel like what Claire said in the Slack discussion would be cool as well: modeling reactions at the molecular level. This would help in imagining reactions, especially in classes like organic chemistry where it's completely how molecules interact with each other. This would help students that are unable to afford or get molecular modeling kits, so it'd be a nice resource to offer. Going off of organic chemistry, it could also be helpful to see how the electrons "pull" charge away so that it's easier to imagine. I know I had difficulties with the activating/deactivating of benzene rings because it felt more like straight memorization rather than the concept having specific theory behind it.
The most beneficial aspect of VR is being able to access teachers with relative ease, and being able to start learning when you want to. It does come with the caveat that you may learn more inefficiently, but I would argue that most people aren't mentally in the game for every single lecture, so being able to listen to the lecture when one is focused and ready, and also able to rewind parts that they didn't fully understand is really advantageous.
Chemistry on the high-school level could benefit from VR when learning the different VESPR geometries. Considering college level, VESPR geometries are re-taught, and I think this would be a prime opportunity to incorporate VR, additionally, when it comes to organic chemistry, being able to visualize the mechanisms of common reactions would be helpful, as there is a lot to learn in organic chemistry and being able to visually see the electrons within the reaction would be awesome. As for thermodynamics, introductory concepts such as the ideal gas law would allow for a good visualization, such as when temperature increases causing the volume to increase. When it comes to the larger concepts taught in this class, it is a bit harder to incorporate VR, but a good opportunity I believe, would be for flash separations, Gibb’s reactors and to visualize chemical reaction equilibria.
In a sense, I think VR might be useful in seeing how equilibrium works, i.e. forward reactions and back reactions. It maybe even useful for looking at how things at molecular level as most things on the macroscopic level such as large scale distillations are readily available to learn from. This could be useful for Kinetics and maybe osmosis of thermodynamics if that's available.
VR could be used to teach chemistry by being able to visualize things a lot better like particles and reactions which would help both high school level classes and college level classes. Yes there can be applications to thermo using VR learning with visually seeing when a phase goes to equilbrium and much more.
I think it could definitely be useful in classes that molecules need to be imagined in 3D (organic chemistry, quantum mechanics, etc). it would be interesting to be able to look at the molecules with VR and be able to turn them and shift them like they are in reactions and such. Since it's kind of hard to imagine these things on a piece of paper or even in a simulator on a screen, it would be super cool to look at the molecules in VR and be able to shift and turn them and stuff. I don't know how easily they would be applied to thermo as I feel like a lot of the material is more conceptual rather than visual.
When I was in high school, I watched a youtube channel called richard thornley, who used a physics simulation game to demonstrate chemistry principles. Things like kinetics of reactions, energetics of molecules, acids and bases. It was useful to see interactions of molecules bouncing around of colliding in different ways, so in a vr conext, you could also have the option to take certain moleculs and try pulling them apart to feel bond strengths or intermolecular forces etc. Additionally, I can see perhaps applications in organic chemistry with synthesis reactions. You start with a molecule and a target. Based on different reagents you can bring one molecule near the reagent and see how it reacts, the different transition states, perhaps with electron clouds around to see the orbital strain etc.
I think VR could be used effectively to create simulations of looking at molecules interacting, or groups of molecules interacting. Seeing a static image on a screen is one thing but seeing dynamic molecules is another. This is more of an organic chemistry concept, but basic chemical reactions could be shown in VR as well, like nucleophilic and electrophilic attacks. Sometimes they are hard to visualize and looking at them in VR could be cool. Of course, they could also be done with a molecule kit but especially due to the pandemic not everyone has them. Lastly, I think they could also be used, especially at lower levels, to show demos of fun chemical reactions, if the school can't get the supplies or PPE necessary to perform the experiment then it could be a good alternative.
In high school it was very difficult for me to wrap my head around chemistry because it was so abstract in the sense that it was not something that I was able to see with the naked eye. Also because of the fact that I'm a visual learner, I need to see things in order to fully wrap my head around what is going on. That being said, I think that VR could be greatly helpful in visualizing what cannot normally be seen. In addition, the online labs have been intolerable because I don't get the hands on experience that I would be getting if I went into the lab to do the experiments myself. VR could also be greatly helpful in making lab activities much more understandable by getting to pretend you're doing it yourself as compared to watching YouTube videos of other people doing it for you.
I think VR can be used to teach stereochemistry, VSEPR theory, equilibrium of reactions (General chemistry), molecular orbital theory with pictures that will help understand what bonding and antibonding orbitals mean physically with examples (I had trouble understanding this at first). I think a great idea for learning organic chemistry is using VR for understand NMR and IR, reactions and their mechanisms, the different functional groups and how they relate to biology and medicine. Maybe could show the development of a NMR and IR graph by plotting the peaks one by one. You could show a benzene ring, then show a benzene ring with a hydroxyl group, etc. As for thermo, you could show examples of mixing, describe why we use the poynting correction with visualizations, show P-x, T-x graphs for ideal and non-ideal substances, maybe show the differences using different equations of state, show how or why enthalpy may be dependent on temperature and why it sometimes it can be estimated to not depend on temperature, a great one would be to show the mixing ideas and immiscibility in a Gibbs free energy diagram, extent of reactions where you could change the parameters and show chemical reactions that fit those equations, flash separations and how the different parameters change the separation in real time, etc.

Kulkarni Research Group