LeMo - Studying Chemical Molecular Structures through Gaming

Abstract

The present work's main contribution is the description of a first experiment to create a virtual chemistry lab to be used at university level based on games instead of the traditional chemistry virtual labs based on experiments. The paper starts with the motivation to use games as a teaching-learning process and with the reason for choosing Lewis formulas and VSEPR theory to make a first experiment. Previous works, with emphasis on web solutions for Chemistry and the role of emotions in the learning process are then presented. The architecture of LeMo, the developed game, is described together with a detailed explanation of its operation. The paper ends with a summary of the experiment's results, which indicate that gaming may be a good strategy for motivating students to study Chemistry.