2022 LSU Gumbo - Book - Page 177
A typical day in Semin Lee’s classroom looks quite
different from that of the average chemistry class.
Students aren’t examining models of molecules in a
textbook – they’re holding molecules in their hands,
expanding them to the size of a house, allowing them
to walk inside and examine its components, all with
the flick of a controller.
Lee, an assistant professor in LSU’s Department
of Chemistry, uses virtual reality in his upper-level
chemistry class to help students understand the
structure of molecules.
“In organic chemistry, the three-dimensional
structure of the molecule is very important,” Lee said.
“[Students] seem to like it a lot – it’s a totally new
experience. You look around, there’s a huge gigantic
molecule over there and you have the freedom to bring
it close to you, peek your head inside.”
Each of Lee’s PhD students in his CHEM 4561
class is given a VR headset to take home with them,
allowing them to interact with molecules on their own
time.
Students watch Lee’s virtual reality lectures in small
groups. Lee teaches the material while he manipulates
molecules, showing students what he’s talking about.
Students can pause the lecture at any time and
manipulate the molecules themselves, then hit play
and continue where he left off.
“It’s easier to see the interactions between molecules
if you’re able to touch and move them and put them
together, like Legos,” said Victoria Rittell, a chemistry
PhD student and one of Lee’s students.
Lee delivered lectures in VR when the university
went online due to the pandemic, allowing for more
of an in-person experience than Zoom was able to
provide. Lee has been using VR at LSU since 2017,
when he began teaching at the university.
In September 2020, Lee and his lab, the Lee Group,
received a three-year research grant from the National
Science foundation to explore better catalysts for
alkyne metathesis and explore virtual reality teaching
methods.
To arrange his VR simulations, Lee uses Nanome,
a software originally used for drug research, allowing
scientists to walk around inside molecules and see how
drug molecules would bind to different proteins.
Lee first became interested in using VR for teaching
purposes when he was completing a post-doctorate
at the University of Illinois. He attended an outreach
event that was using VR technology to get people
interested in chemistry.
“The demo they did was quite astonishing,” Lee
said. “They were able to walk inside proteins. Young
children came along, you can crawl inside molecules
and they seemed to have a lot of fun.”
Biochemistry senior and one of Lee’s students,
Caleb Lee said that learning chemistry in VR provides
all sorts of advantages, allowing students to see where
and how different molecules can bind with other
molecules.
“I think it’s a breakthrough because it’s fun and
it helps people who just can’t visualize as well to
visualize, and maybe they can use that to enhance their
visualization outside of VR,” Caleb Lee said.
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