Mixed Reality Could Improve Science,Technology,Engineering,and Mathematics Learning

One of the most important challenges faced by today's education systems is how to help students learning complex concepts in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classrooms. Mixed reality (MR) may have great potential to make these disciplines less difficult to teach. For example, it is well known that an effective strategy to support the learning of abstract ideas is to leverage “experiential metaphors” by mapping everyday “tangible” experiences onto abstract domains to support conceptual development and learning (e.g., using a magnet to explain the functioning of chemical bond). In this sense, advanced simulation technologies such as virtual and augmented reality could be used to help students creating real-life analogies upon which to build their mental models.

A further asset offered by MR systems is that they allow students to interact dynamically with simulations of natural phenomena, fostering a better understanding of the relationships among variables. One interesting example of this strategy is provided by the physics holo.lab learning experience, a joint collaboration lead by Dr. Martin Strzys from the Department of Physics of University of Kaiserslautern in Germany. The holo.lab is a MR labwork designed to foster the concepts of heat conduction. ¹ As the authors of this project explain, thermodynamics phenomena are often difficult to grasp because they rely on abstract physical quantities such as energy, heat, and entropy, which are not covered by our visual experience. To overcome this limitation, the holo.lab setup allows students to “observe the unobservable,” by visualizing the heat flux through a metallic rod, heated on one side while simultaneously cooled on the other, in form of smartglass HoloLens “holograms” placed directly at the real physical object. Thus, this representation allows students to experience an otherwise invisible quantity—in this case temperature—thus “extending” their perception.

The experimental scenario can be further enriched by including graphs and numerical values, allowing for a just-in-time evaluation of physical processes, as students may directly observe and evaluate the process of heating and the formation of a stationary state with the help of these features. To test the efficacy of the AR-enhanced teaching method, Dr. Strzys and his confederates conducted an empirical study at University of Kaiserslautern in which they compared a traditional, experimental setup equipped with a hand-held infrared camera and a PC, with the holo.lab with smartglasses setup in parallel to the standard laboratory course. After the experience, students in both setups were asked to process and analyze the data produced during the laboratory course. Next, conceptual understanding of the two groups were coded and compared by the authors. The results of the experiment showed that the MR settings improved students' gain in conceptual understanding compared to the control condition. Thus, these encouraging results may warrant the application of MR to other laboratory courses in physics and other STEM disciplines.