Experts in the San Jose State chemistry and computer engineering departments successfully composed a virtual reality experience for students to expand their learning in a visual setting.
The Spartan Chemistry Virtual Reality Lab is a project that has been developing over the last two years and is now a functioning educational app to use with VR equipment.
Chemistry assistant professor Abraham Wolcott said he wanted to help his physical and general chemistry students understand core concepts in an interactive way.
Wolcott said he knew virtual reality would be the best experience for his students to learn material related to kinetic energy and pressure.
“Many people find it difficult to visualize the molecular world of chemistry, physics and biology,” Wolcott said.
In the app, students can experiment with gases such as helium, oxygen and nitrogen while also changing the molecule temperatures and the dimensions of the virtual glass box.
The experiment allows students to watch the real reactions of atoms and molecules that are too small to see outside of virtual reality.
After receiving funds for the project from California State University technology programs, Wolcott and his team created an app that is compatible with Android phones, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and soon, iPhones.
The project was made possible with help from SJSU AR/VR Club cofounder Nanci Solomon, Unity software developer Patrick Stafford, SJSU eCampus director Jennifer Redd, SJSU technology labs coordinator Jon Oakes and many others.
Before Wolcott and his team developed the app, he taught his students the same experiments in his classroom by throwing a set of foam balls around the room and explaining the physics.
“With technology advancing so fast and everyone having smartphones, it was organic to start imagining the students inside a virtual space where the atoms were buzzing around the room,” Wolcott said.
Students in Wolcott’s physical and general chemistry classes were given HTC Vive virtual reality headsets to try the app on their Android phones, while students with iPhones can use the Oculus Rift in the SJSU library KLEVR Lab.
The app, developed by Stafford, was made for students to virtually walk in a room and experiment with different molecules.
“As the lead developer, I work with [Wolcott] to determine feature requirements and milestones,” Stafford said. “I then break down each milestone into tasks and assign them to an appropriate human resource.”
Stafford also mentored graduate students who participated in the development of the app.
For software engineering graduate student Dharmang Solanki, the Spartan Chemistry Virtual Reality Lab was an interactive learning experience for him to further explore his passion in software development.
Solanki assisted Stafford with coding and implementing new features for the app.
“Most recently I have completed my feature of implementing the Maxwell Boltzmann Distribution graph for this project,” Solanki said. “Using this feature, students can understand how the velocity of molecules change when temperature is changed.”
Solanki said he has worked on many game development projects and said he is excited to learn new technologies.
“The app we [developed] is not an actual game, but learning chemistry using this app is very much fun,” Solanki said.
The first version of the Spartan Chemistry Virtual Reality Lab was a success for Wolcott’s general and physical chemistry students.
“The future of the project is now wide open with the ability to expand into new subject material and reach more students who may find chemistry and physics difficult,” Wolcott said.
The app is available to everyone by appointment in the library KLEVR lab for iPhone and Android.
