MEL Chemistry VR

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CertifiedEducation quality
01/2018
MEL Chemistry VR

MEL Chemistry VR

MEL Science
Chemistry
A VR app to learn about atom and molecule structures with comprehensive curriculum

MEL Chemistry VR is a set of short lessons, which explain and show how atomic structures and chemistry concepts work. See what it looks like to dive into a pencil or a diamond and observe it at the atomic level. Difficult chemistry concepts are easily explained and the ability to interact with educational material builds up solid knowledge and long term memory. Each lesson is 3-7 minutes long and can be easily integrated into the classic lesson flow, just making the subject more visual and comprehensive. MEL Chemistry VR works on Android phones with Google Daydream or Google Cardboard VR headsets. The teacher can view and control the student's experience on a tablet. MEL Chemistry VR also offers comprehensive teacher materials to be used with the app.

Age groups 
Middle school
High School
Price 
Subscription
Languages 
English
Platform 
Mobile Android
Other
Registration 
Not required
Offline play 
Internet required
Pictures
Pedagogy
Educational Quality
Learning Goals

The pedagogical analysis covers how the product supports learning of the identified skills. The student’s role is assessed by four contrary pair parameters, which are selected to cover the most essential aspects on the use of the product.

Passive
Active
Interactivity is supported in every lesson through moving inside the matter, quizzes and molecule building activities. Active learning by doing is engaging students to exploration and building understanding through testing things, playing and making. Connecting the chemistry concepts with the real world is an important part of the experience.
Rehearse
Construct
The solution supports building new understanding through high-quality lessons. The visual demonstrations help to understand the abstract concepts as student gets to experience them in an immersive way. Lesson voice-overs are well structured and comprehensive, providing relevant information that helps to understand what is being seen. Quizzes and interactions give instant feedback for learners.
Linear
Non-linear/Creative
The solution provides equal learning paths for everyone, yet the students can study in their own pace and learning outcomes can still be predicted relatively accurately. This is a practical choice and helps the classroom use where teacher needs to plan lessons according to the curriculum goals. Some activities facilitate open exploration and students can freely try and explore different chemical reactions, which brings a creative element to the learning.
Individual
Collaborative
The solution does not require any social interaction as part of the learning experience. It allows users to progress in their own pace and focus on the things that matter the most for them. This individual approach is well pedagogically justified as learners do need this type of quiet, self-imposed and autonomic experiences. Discussions and social learning activities are hard to do when wearing the VR gear, so it’s better to leave them to happen outside of the use of MEL Chemistry VR.

The following are the high educational quality aspects in this product.

Interactivity is supported in every lesson through moving inside the matter, quizzes and molecule building activities.
The solution supports building new understanding through high-quality lessons. The visual demonstrations help understanding of abstract concepts as student gets to experience them in an immersive way.
The solution provides equal learning paths for everyone where students can study in their own pace and learning outcomes can still be predicted relatively accurately.
The VR experience is immersive and executed in aesthetic yet functional manner. The sessions are short, and the most common issues with VR, such as nausea, are minimized with clever design.
The teacher may choose, whether they want to be in complete control of the course of the lesson, or if they allow children to progress in their own phase.

The supported learning goals are identified by matching the product with several relevant curricula descriptions on this subject area. The soft skills are definitions of learning goals most relevant for the 21st century. They are formed by taking a reference from different definitions of 21st century skills and Finnish curriculum.

Subject based learning goals

Learning about a simple (Dalton) atomic model.
Learning about changes of state in terms of the particle model.
Learning the Periodic Table: periods and groups; metals and non-metals.
Learning how patterns in reactions can be predicted with reference to the Periodic Table.
Learning about the varying physical and chemical properties of different elements.
Learning about the properties of the different states of matter (solid, liquid and gas) in terms of the particle model, including gas pressure
Learning about the concept of a pure substance.
Learning about the chemical symbols and formulae for elements and compounds.
Learning about reactions of acids with alkalis to produce a salt plus water
Learning about differences between atoms, elements and compounds
Learning about conservation of mass changes of state and chemical reactions.
Learning about chemical reactions as the rearrangement of atoms.

Soft skills learning goals

Learning to acquire, modify and produce information in different forms
Practicing logical reasoning to understand and interpret information in different forms
Practicing to use information independently and interactively
Using technology as a part of explorative process
Learning to understand and interpret diverse types of texts, from vernacular to academic
Using technological resources for finding and applying information
Learning to notice causal connections
Practicing categorization and classification
Developing problem solving skills
Encouraging to build new information and visions
Learning to build information on top of previously learned

The Finnish Educational Quality Certificate

Our Quality Evaluation Method is an academically sound approach to evaluating a product’s pedagogical design from the viewpoint of educational psychology.

The method has been developed with university researchers and all evaluators are carefully selected Finnish teachers with a master's degree in education.

More about the evaluation