Using Virtual Worlds in the General Chemistry Classroom - ACS

Chapter 8

Downloaded by PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on September 22, 2013 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): September 19, 2013 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2013-1142.ch008

Using Virtual Worlds in the General Chemistry Classroom W. L. Keeney-Kennicutt*,1 and Z. H. Merchant2 1Department

of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77842-3012 2Department of Teaching, Learning and Culture, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77842-4232 *E-mail: [email protected]

The 3D environments of virtual worlds like Second Life (SL) have much to offer a general chemistry classroom instructor, especially when teaching chemistry concepts like VSEPR theory and the 3D nature of molecules. Students can benefit from a variety of synchronous and asynchronous activities within a virtual world, including office hours, videos, simulations, games, quizzes and interactions with virtual chemical species. An extensive mixed methods study compared test results of students who finished three VSEPR-related activities in SL to the results of a control group who did the same activities on paper. Findings showed subtle but significant differences in increased student ability by the SL group for interpreting routine 2D presentations of 3D chemical structures using solid lines, dashed lines and wedges. Although the experimental group attitudes toward SL were split on whether SL was a good idea for a chemistry course, the potential benefit of SL in chemistry classrooms was demonstrated.

Introduction The general chemistry university classroom is an appropriate and stimulating place to involve the use of a 3D virtual space, like Second Life (SL), whether the class is large or small, on-line, face-to-face or blended. The use of virtual worlds brings an entirely new dimension to teaching and learning (1). Developing © 2013 American Chemical Society In Pedagogic Roles of Animations and Simulations in Chemistry Courses; Suits, J., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2013.

3D spatial awareness in chemistry students, such as understanding the shapes of chemical molecules and ions, would especially benefit from working in a 3D virtual environment.


The Virtual Classroom Face-to-face (synchronous) activities can easily occur in the virtual world. Instructors can use their virtual selves, called avatars, to directly interact with up to about 40 student avatars directly in several ways, such as text or voice chatting with students (2) and conducting PowerPoint presentations using a virtual slide viewer (3). SL supports synchronous communication (4–6), where an instructor can hold office hours in-world (in SL) (7), the class can meet virtually, students can have field trips to any world attractions or museums (8), and a conference can take place online (9). At Drexel University, faculty administered organic chemistry quizzes (10), students played games related to NMR spectral assignments (11) and students networked with faculty in chemistry related fields (12). SL combines all kinds of computer-mediated communication (13). It is even possible to stream the output of a computer desktop with an interactive pen display, like a Sympodium® output, into Second Life. This allows the instructor to work problems on the computer screen and have students see the solutions in-world with only a short delay. Virtual worlds also support asynchronous activities when the instructor is absent. Students can engage in learning materials designed by instructors, watch videos and PowerPoint presentations, work on virtual assignments (including notecard writings, virtual presentations, object creation, taking photos of their work, etc.), interact with quizzes, chemistry simulations, chemistry games and assignments in-world, in the same way as doing on-line homework. The difference is that students are more engaged since they can meet in groups, like lab partners, in-world and work on assignments together. An instructor can intentionally design virtual materials to integrate these media so students can be fully immersed in learning. Through synchronous or asynchronous interactions with technological media, students are engaged in inquiry-based (14) and student-centered learning (15). There are many professional organizations and resources in Second Life for educators. The EdTech Community on EdTech Island (16) has over 2000 members; their goal is to assist teachers in accessing information, share ideas and techniques, and exchange tips with other teachers. The Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable (17) with over 600 members, formerly known as the SL Education Roundtable is a weekly meeting for anyone in Second Life who wanted to meet other educators and share experiences. The Applied Research in Virtual Environments for Learning (18) has over 100 members and is a special interest group of the American Educational Research Association (19). Lastly the Virtual World Best Practices for Education (20) has over 600 members; its purpose is to run an annual completely in-world free conference on virtual worlds, best practices and how they are used in education. Another resource is the Second Life Education Wiki (21). 182 In Pedagogic Roles of Animations and Simulations in Chemistry Courses; Suits, J., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2013.

The Virtual Chemistry Classroom


Applications of chemistry and chemical education in the virtual worlds like Second Life have been extensively reviewed (22). The authors included the visualization of molecules using a rendering program like Orac, a tool that creates molecules using any SMILES, InChi or InChiKey format. Once created, the molecules can be moved, sized and rotated. Figure 1 shows Orac building an acetic acid molecule in real time.

Figure 1. Orac building a molecule of acetic acid.

It is also possible to render chemical reactions in 3D to show conformational changes. The individual work and the collaboration between these two authors provided tools and expertise to encourage faculty to participate and develop virtual world chemistry activities. Dr. K’s Chemistry Place (Figure 2) is on one corner of 12th Man Island, one of several Texas A&M University Second Life regions, called islands. It is divided into two areas – one for general instruction and the other for illustrating and studying 3D molecules and ions with Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion (VSEPR) Theory. Its development is described in a blog (23).

Figure 2. Dr. K’s Chemistry Place (see color insert) 183 In Pedagogic Roles of Animations and Simulations in Chemistry Courses; Suits, J., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2013.


In the general instruction area (Figure 3) there is a classroom corner which includes a working blackboard, a notice board, a movie screen to show videos and stream a Sympodium® desktop to work on problems in real time during office hours, an in-world clicker system, seating that allows students to raise their hands, and a quizzing system used to generate discussion during office hours.

Figure 3. General instruction area.

During office hours, a headset microphone allows a two way conversation with the instructor speaking without echoes, while students use a chat box to communicate. Most faculty use this combination of communication techniques. One of the most important parts of running office hours or a review session for a chemistry class is being able to work out problems. Wirecast, from Telestream, converts a PC computer into a streaming server. Problems can be displayed on a Sympodium® which then appear on the movie screen in SL with only a few seconds delay. The students must have Quicktime downloaded onto their computers and they must be inside the university firewall. Some students working from home had to set up a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to do so. The SL clicker system (Figure 4a) and the obelisque quizzing system (Figure 4b) work well together to promote student interaction and learning. The quiz system can be used by students even when the instructor is absent. There is more detailed information about these teaching tools on-line (23). Included in the area are chemistry simulations that students can use to better understand certain phenomena. Figures 5a-c shows three interactive chemistry simulations: (a) an interactive simulation linking quantum numbers with orbital shapes, (b) an interactive periodic table, and (c) H2 absorption spectrum device. There is also room for entertaining, interactive chemistry fun in the area involving moles. Figure 6 shows two games: “How many moles can you find?” and WhackA-Mole.

184 In Pedagogic Roles of Animations and Simulations in Chemistry Courses; Suits, J., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2013.


Figure 4. Teaching aids. (a) Clicker system (b) Obelisque quizzing system

Figure 5. Interactive chemistry simulations. (a) quantum numbers and orbital shapes (b) periodic table (c) hydrogen absorption spectrum device.

185 In Pedagogic Roles of Animations and Simulations in Chemistry Courses; Suits, J., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2013.


Figure 6. Interactive games. (a) How many moles can you find? (b) Whack-A-Mole

Spatial Ability and Chemistry Understanding Recent reviews (24–26) cite the lack of spatial ability and visualization skills as challenges that students face while studying chemistry. Literature suggests that spatial training and use of molecular visualization in the classroom can lead to gains in student academic achievement (27–32). A chemist must be able to visualize the arrangement of atoms in a 3D space to know the shape of molecules. A goal of chemistry instructors is to enhance students’ visual and spatial abilities to translate and transform molecules mentally and physically between the 2D and 3D worlds. Students’ difficulty in learning chemistry concepts can influence their self-efficacy and their belief that he or she can be successful in accomplishing a task (33, 34). Research suggests that self- efficacy acts as a catalyst in expediting the learning process (35, 36). Therefore, embedding spatial training in chemistry instruction using desktop 3D virtual reality environments’ features can play a mediating role in enhancing students’ chemistry achievement. Virtual environments like Second Life (SL) offer a platform for relatively simple development of complex 3D interactive objects, like molecules, without engaging in extensive computer programming. These environments provide an element of “presence,” that is reported to improve student learning outcomes (37). SL is increasingly used for education, including chemistry, with three benefits: visualization, immersion (presence) and collaboration (38). In SL students can combine the macroscopic and particulate worlds of chemistry. These aspects of SL produce at least the same benefit to understanding chemistry as shown by other studies given above. At present, a student can enter SL, create a persona called an avatar, build, and interact with molecules either with SL construction tools from basic SL building blocks, or use newly developed tools which make the creation of 3D molecules easier. Using and understanding effective visualization techniques are critical to a student’s success in chemistry at all levels. Tools that assist students in understanding the 3D nature of molecules abound, from 186 In Pedagogic Roles of Animations and Simulations in Chemistry Courses; Suits, J., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2013.


gum-drops and toothpicks to highly developed and sometimes expensive computer drawing programs and simulations. Second Life (SL) as a platform offers unique advantages over more traditional means that enhance chemistry education: multidimensional visualization, immersion, interaction, collaboration, cooperation and team-building. Virtual reality technologies not only allow students to learn chemistry content, synchronously and asynchronously, but one of the most vital and promising affordances of the virtual reality technologies is to provide spatial instruction. According to Moore (39) “….by teaching the students to think in 3D using visualization techniques, their spatial cognition can be enhanced.” Similarly, Hedberg and Alexander (40) who emphasized the benefit of using 3D virtual reality environments stated, “As ideas are represented in a three dimensional world, three dimensional thinking can be enhanced, and the mental transformation of information from two to three dimensions can be facilitated.” Dalgarno, Hedberg, and Harper (41) propose that “If 3D environment is a metaphorical representation of abstract ideas, it may be that by developing an integrated database of two dimensional views of a three dimensional model of the concepts, we are better able to make sense of the concepts than through other instructional approaches” (p. 8). So, one of the critical features of 3D virtual reality environments is the ability to visually depict and interact with spatial representations of abstract concepts. Therefore, this feature of 3D virtual environments can be useful in providing instruction for developing spatial ability. Many studies conducted to examine the effectiveness of virtual reality technologies in chemistry have found positive effects (31, 42, 43) However, researchers must focus attention on analyzing the role of the mediating variables between the effects of 3D virtual reality technologies based instruction and chemistry learning. These are the variables that attempt to explain how and why the effect occurs. According to Waller, Hunt, and Knapp (44), 3D virtual reality technology researchers should explore perceptual and psychological variables that influence learning. Understanding the role of these mediator variables is also important for guiding instructional designers as they create learning modules with the features of virtual reality.

Second Life Chemistry Study In Spring 2011, a large mixed methods study was conducted at Texas A&M University to investigate the use of Second Life in teaching a particular chemistry topic, Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion (VSEPR) Theory, to first semester general chemistry students. VSEPR theory was selected as a measure of chemistry learning because it is one of the most fundamental, abstract, and spatially demanding concepts in undergraduate chemistry courses (45), where students are expected to view molecules in a 3D space. It was a quasi-experimental pre-posttest control group research design study using two Chemistry 101 classes with ~240 students in each class. The experimental group did 3 activities in SL over a 6 week period while the control group did the same 3 activities using two 2D rotated screen shot images. The study, including post-tests, was completed 187 In Pedagogic Roles of Animations and Simulations in Chemistry Courses; Suits, J., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2013.


before the students did a VSEPR laboratory exercise. The data was analyzed for a total of 290 students who completed all three measures. A total of 153 participants were in the experimental group and 137 participants were in the control group. Overall, the participating students were 36% male and 64 % female; 68% were non-chemistry science, engineering and technical majors and 23% were students who had not declared a major. The remaining were students in unrelated majors. The class composition was similar between the experimental and control groups.

Figure 7. The Molecule Game. (a) The basics of the Molecule Game (b) Students playing the Molecule Game (see color insert) Activity 1 The first activity, The Molecule Game, was designed for two purposes: (1) to develop SL skills (inventory, chat, interacting with objects, taking photographs) that students would need for the third major activity and (2) to improve students’ ability to see molecules in a 3D space from multiple perspectives. Figure 7a shows the basics of the game and Figure 7b shows several students playing the game. Students had to “rezz” (i.e., make an object appear in the Second Life environment) molecules at five different stations and answer a chemistry-related question about each molecule. For example, one of the stations had an ethane molecule. When 188 In Pedagogic Roles of Animations and Simulations in Chemistry Courses; Suits, J., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2013.


students rezzed the molecule, a note appeared asking “How many hydrogen atoms does an ethane molecule have?” The students could view the ethane molecule, count the atoms, and walk around if necessary to view the molecule from different perspectives in order to answer that question. When the students answered, they received feedback. When finished, the game automatically sent an email to the researchers. In addition, each student emailed a picture of their avatar taken at any one of the five stations with their real name.

Figure 8. Chemist as an Artist. (a) The explanatory PowerPoint presentation and the molecule giver box. (b) Students rezzing their molecules in the sandbox.

Activity 2 The purpose of the second activity, Chemistry as an Artist (Figure 8a), was to further help students see molecules in 3D by having them draw molecules in perspective using the typical chemistry way with solid lines, dashed lines and wedges. This activity gives the students practice in interpreting 2D representations 189 In Pedagogic Roles of Animations and Simulations in Chemistry Courses; Suits, J., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2013.


of 3D molecules. Each student in the experimental group was given three VSEPR molecular shapes to manipulate by clicking on a box; the control group students were emailed three pairs of screen shots. For each molecule, the experimental group was required to provide a photograph of their avatars with two orientations and a 2D drawing for each. Figure 8b shows many students in the Texas A&M University sandbox area rezzing their molecules. A sandbox is an area set aside where avatars can build and create. Most islands for educational purposes allow only certain groups to build, but a sandbox allows anyone to build. The sandbox cleans itself every three hours. Dr. K’s Chemistry Place allows avatars to build for only 2 minutes, which permits the students to play the Molecule Game. After the allotted time, any build is returned to builder avatar’s inventory.

Activity 3 The third activity was an extensive homework assignment on VSEPR theory (Figure 9a). Each student was given 11 different molecules or ions, in either SL for the experimental group by clicking on rotating boxes (Figure 9b) or by email for the control group. The control group was divided into 5 subgroups, with each subgroup getting its own set of 11 species. The experimental group was required to take pictures of two orientations of each molecule whereas the control subgroups were emailed these pictures. Both drew the 2D representations as they did in the previous activity. In addition each student measured bond angles using borrowed protractors, determined electronic and molecular geometries, and drew Lewis dot structures. The molecules and ions were in 6 categories: simple octet obeyers with no lone pairs on the center atom (e.g. HCN, CF4), complex octet obeyers with at least one lone pair of electrons on the center atom (e.g. NH3, SF3+), simple octet violators with no lone pairs on the center atom (e.g. PF5, BH3), species with resonance (e.g. SO3, NO3−), ternary acids and ions (e.g. HClO4, HSO3−), and complex octet violators, (e.g. ClF3, XeF5+).

Assessments There were 3 pre-post timed tests. A 36-question multiple choice chemistry learning test on VSEPR theory was developed, consisting of questions about molecular angles, molecular geometry, and species identification. Three chemistry professors reviewed this test to ensure the validity of the content. The reliability coefficient alpha for the test was 0.90, higher than the acceptable level recommended for learning achievement tests (46). The second pre-post test was the Purdue Visualization of Rotations Test (PVRT). This 20 question test developed by Bodner and Guay (47) is a widely used measure of spatial orientation in the field of chemistry. This test has consistently demonstrated a good reliability index ranging from 0.78 – 0.80 in a variety of research contexts. Each question shows a 3D object and participants are asked to select the correct rotated version of the object from the five alternatives provided. 190 In Pedagogic Roles of Animations and Simulations in Chemistry Courses; Suits, J., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2013.


Figure 9. The VSEPR Theory Activity. (a) The Tower of VSEPR (b) Species-giving boxes The third pre-post test was the Card Rotation Test (CRT) (48) measuring mental rotation ability. The students view a random shape and judge which of the eight alternative test figures are either the same, i.e. a planar rotation of the figure, or different, i.e. the mirror image of the figure. It is a 2 page test with each page having 10 reference shapes. The Test of Logical Thinking (TOLT) (49) was given as a pretest to see if both classes scored statistically the same on their formal reasoning ability. Additional posttests included demographics, a presence questionnaire, as well as exam and laboratory grades on the VSEPR topic. Results and Discussion Before the interventions, the control group and the experimental group were statistically the same for the VSEPR content test, the PVRT and the TOLT (Table I). However, the two groups were statistically different on CRT pre-test with 160 191 In Pedagogic Roles of Animations and Simulations in Chemistry Courses; Suits, J., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2013.

items (Table II), so with this measurement, score gains rather than absolute scores were tracked.

Table I. Pretest Results Control (N=137) Mean (SD)

Experimental (N=153) Mean (SD)

VSEPR Content Test (36 items)

7.08 (3.56)

7.39 (3.77)

PVRT (20 items)

12.36 (3.48)

11.86 (3.70)

TOLT (10 items)

6.43 (2.10)

6.14 (2.24)


TEST

Table II. Results for Card Rotation Test (CRT) Pretest, Posttest and Gain Control Mean (SD)

Experimental Mean (SD)

p

Pretest

107.9 (30.4)

100.3 (27.9)

0.027 (2-tailed)

Posttest

127.2 (29.5)

123.8 (22.5)

0.28 (2 tailed)

19.3 (20.4) p

Using Virtual Worlds in the General Chemistry Classroom - ACS

Recommend Documents