Chemistry students typically have trouble visualizing molecules on 2D surfaces like a textbook. JMU X-Labs’ Augmented/Virtual Reality class set out in the Spring 2019 semester to solve this problem.

Through a multidisciplinary approach, the students created an app designed to provide a more interactive learning experience. The app is being tested in chemistry classes at JMU, and the developers are working with textbook distribution companies in the hopes of integrating it into the curriculum.

“Like many of the courses we teach here in JMU X-Labs, we give students a problem without an answer,” said James Barnes, the instructor of Augmented and Virtual Reality. “It’s not easy, it’s messy, but it’s the real world, and that’s the kind of thing we’re trying to train students for.”