Virtualisation

3. Virtualisation in teaching science

With the development of web content, certain technologies appeared in the late 1990s that facilitated virtualisation, a key element in teaching natural science subjects. On the international level, the academic sphere was the first to produce websites using atomic and molecular models, physics experiments, cells and other living organisms in an interactive and visually compelling form.

Virtualisation from the 1980s: character-based display of an atomic orbital (source: Kappenberg, 1988, p. 195)

 

The most spectacular results of virtualisation are related to learning about the microworld. Even though now we are able to more or less take a picture of molecules using a scanning tunnel microscope, using models is still extremely important. In chemical and biological modelling, you can usually display your models using the Chime (http://www.symyx.com/) plug-in most typically used with Java based Jmol and VRML (Virtual Reality Markup Language).

 

Molecule model with Chime player


Jmol is a Java based tool designed to visualise 3D chemical structures (molecules, grids, atomic and molecular orbitals, complex biomolecules). Due to its open source design, it is continuously developed by the Internet community, and an increasing number of content and social communities are created for that. One of the advantages of Jmol is that it uses the information content of the model. As a result, the more information the structural file contains, the more detailed the pop-up menu.

 


Measuring bonding angle on a Jmol model

Using VRML, you can create 3D, interactive structures called worlds. This technology is primarily used to visualise molecules, but there have been models built that display instruments and equipment.

An additional option is to build 3D environments like a chemical laboratory. This solution is very costly and only a few countries have attempted to use it primarily as part of remote learning (Dalgarno, Bishop, Adlong, Bedgood Jr., 2009).

Virtual teaching environments (e.g. Second Life) offer an increasing number of opportunities to make information available to students that is otherwise physically inaccessible and hard to learn.

More examples: