(198b) Virtual Reality Movies and Marshmallows: A Crystal Structure Workshop for Middle School Students

Crystal structures and their atomic builds can be a difficult topic for middle school students to conceptualize. To help students better understand these structures at the atomic scale, we have designed a workshop that uses movies and crafts to give students an introduction to crystal structure. This hour-long workshop starts with an interactive presentation on atoms and molecules that gives the background on crystal structure. The Visual Molecular Dynamics (VMD) program was used to create movies that give students a virtual-reality (VR) view of four different crystal structures – sapphire, DNA, salt, and sugar. Using provided VR glasses, students work in small groups or pairs to fill out a worksheet that uses the scientific method to make observations and sketch the crystal structures they viewed. Class-wide discussions occur between each structure observation to identify patterns within the crystal. The students then use their observations to create a model of one of the four crystal structures using marshmallows and toothpicks. This workshop is a simple introduction to complicated topics on the atomic scale. Students and teachers have reacted very positively to both the VR aspect and the hands-on building of the structures. We will share details of the materials of this workshop – VR glasses, phones, and building materials, along with how this workshop could be scaled up to a more advanced level.