Enzymatic Lab Educational Model

In the biochemistry lab, students run a batch enzyme reactor experiment but never see the molecular world driving it. The enzyme stays invisible, chirality is taught from flat diagrams, and the polarimeter reading changes without a clear reason why. It all stays abstract.

We built an augmented reality learning module for Meta Quest 3 that places the molecular world right on the student’s real desk, with no controllers and no prior experience needed. Robi, a friendly bilingual robot instructor, guides students as they compare molecules by hand, rotate the enzyme, watch the reaction unfold step by step, and even fire polarized light at molecules to see how structure shapes the result. Students stay seated at their own desk and see the real room around them the whole time, which keeps motion sickness to a minimum and lets students who normally avoid headsets take part.

What was invisible at the bench becomes tangible. Students move inside structures they could never see, handle them with their own hands, and build every concept by doing and deciding rather than by reading a flat diagram. Instructors control the pace live and get real-time comprehension feedback. Built and in use at the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Technion.