Augmented/virtual realities (ARs/VRs)
promise to revolutionize
STEM education. However, most easy-to-use tools are limited to static
visualizations, which limits the approachable content, whereas more
interactive and dynamic alternatives require costly hardware, preventing
large-scale use and evaluation of pedagogical effects. Here, we introduce , a free, open-source web site with interactive AR webpage-based
apps that work out-of-the-box in laptops, tablets, and smartphones,
where students and teachers can naturally handle virtual objects to
explore molecular structure, reactivity, dynamics, and interactions,
covering topics from inorganic, organic, and biological chemistry.
With these web apps, teachers and science communicators can develop
interactive material for their lessons and hands-on activities for
their students and target public, in person or online, as we exemplify.
Thousands of accesses to moleculARweb attest to the ease of use; teacher
feedback attests to the utility in online teaching and homework during
a pandemic; and in-class plus online surveys show that users find
AR engaging and useful for teaching and learning chemistry. These
observations support the potential of AR in future education and show
the large impact that modern web technologies have in democratizing
access to digital learning tools, providing the possibility to mass-test
the pedagogical effect of these technologies in STEM education.