Innovations in Student Learning

Work will soon begin on a collaboration between the Department of Computer Science HIVE and the Department of Chemistry, with the aim to provide students with an immersive experience supporting the understanding of complex molecular 3D models and associated animations such as chemical reactions.

"Across the Science Faculty, we are often teaching concepts that are hard to understand or counter-intuitive. In many cases, a picture or drawing can help students to get a better grasp of the concept and thus far this has been used extensively in lectures in many areas of Science and Engineering. However, there are a number of concepts that require more complex pictorial representations, for example: time-dependent velocity fields in fluid dynamics or thermal profiles in material science. Such concepts are usually depicted by a three-dimensional (3D) representation shown using a fixed perspective on a two-dimensional (2D) support (like this sheet of paper or a computer screen). Students might wonder what is behind the object but, more importantly, the spatial relation between the parts of the picture are often overlooked, rendering the picture less effective as a teaching material."

It is by utilising the HIVE facility that the collaborators aim to address some of the issues noted above.