Marie's ChemLab: A Mobile Augmented Reality Game to Teach Basic Chemistry to Children

Abstract

Digital games are widely used in education to motivate students for science. In parallel, the role of augmented reality (AR) in education is increasing. This paper introduces Marie's ChemLab: a marker-less handheld AR application in which K-12 students learn about science. In Marie's ChemLab, users perform interactions in their physical environment using virtual AR objects displayed on a handheld device. The utilized interaction concept is based on the TrainAR framework (Blattgerste et al, 2021), which originally was envisioned for procedural AR training and layered feedback mechanisms. The original framework has been enhanced to support gamified interactions with virtual objects, specifically for K-12 students. In total, 239 early secondary school students played the final application as part of a larger study. The usability score indicated marginally acceptable usability, and the application was successfully implemented in a classroom setting.