Virtual Reality and Chemistry

Of all the sciences, chemistry is considered one of the hardest to conceptualize. A research group realized this in 2017 when they developed a virtual reality learning environment named “Virtual Chemistry Classroom for Chemical Bonding”. The virtual classroom makes invisible chemical contents visible and shows chemical processes in virtual reality enabling users to visualize things like the size of a mole. It also allows students to do chemical calculations in front of themselves and helps them remember things like the periodic table. The Virtual Chemistry Classroom for Chemical Bonding was also built to facilitate the learning of chemical bonding and formulas (Rahman et al., 2024).

Meta is at the forefront of exploring virtual reality’s effects in the classroom, and chemistry is no exception. The VR Chemistry Lab is an app that has been made available on the app store designed to give users experiences exploring molecule creation and catalyzing chemical reactions. The app has potential for student use as a hands-on science lab experience, be it at home or school. This app is a great tool for educators in the field.

VictoryXR, an XR company on the forefront of using technology in education, has launched a home virtual reality VR that merges online learning and virtual reality. Users download VXR labs to their devices and from there are engrossed in 3D Spatial AI for teaching, training, and simulations. It can be applied to a wide range of subjects, chemistry being one of them.

"Game-Based Learning in the Metaverse" explores the use of Virtual Reality (VR) to create virtual chemistry classrooms. It focuses on teaching chemical bonding through interactive and immersive environments. The article highlights how VR can make abstract concepts more accessible and engaging for students by allowing them to visualize and interact with chemical structures in a 3D space. This approach aims to enhance student motivation and understanding by providing a more hands-on and visually stimulating learning experience (Fombona-Pascual et al., 2022b).

Another example of VR making chemistry strides is the MEL VR Science Simulations. The company offers over 70 VR lessons and tests covering school chemistry and physics curricula. It also provides ways for professors to improve their class performance using up-to-date educational techniques. Some of the topics include but are not limited to atoms in solids, atomic mass, atoms in gases, and ions. MEL Science received the best EdTech VR/AR solution as of 2020.

UCLA is not ignoring VR/AR in the classroom either. The university has founded a virtual reality lab called "Garg Lab" that leverages virtual reality to launch new interactive chemistry resources. 

Another way virtual reality is making headway in the chemistry field is in the 3D visualization through stereoscopic vision. A study conducted by the Chemistry Education Research and Practice journal showed VR’s ability to reproduce the shapes and movements of particles digitally. The study goes on to show the function of VR in the field of chemistry; a genuine understanding of atomic and molecular elements requires spatial and visual thinking that is often lacking in traditional methodologies (Fombona-Pascual et al., 2022).

If you are an instructor or an academic leader and would like to discuss how to best integrate extended reality (XR) into your curriculum, please reach out to the Office of Digital Learning.

• Rahman, H., Wahid, S. A., Ahmad, F., & Ali, N. (2024). Game-based learning in metaverse: Virtual chemistry classroom for chemical bonding for remote education. Education and Information Technologies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-12575-5 
• Fombona-Pascual, A., Fombona, J., & Vázquez-Cano, E. (2022). VR in chemistry, a review of scientific research on advanced atomic/molecular visualization. Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 23(2), 300–312. https://doi.org/10.1039/d1rp00317h