Virtual and Augmented Reality for Teaching Materials Science: a Students as Partners and as Producers Project

Two visualisation techniques have recently gained great momentum in education: virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). In materials science education, VR and AR are potentially very useful when teaching about a topic that is difficult to experience due to being abstract or invisible, or when availability of equipment and space is a limitation. In this paper, we describe a co-creation and multidisciplinary project between students and staff in two University departments for the design and prototyping of VR and AR simulations to teach materials science. The VR prototype is a virtual laboratory where the classic Rockwell hardness test can be experienced; and the AR prototype simulates the optical transmittance properties of some transparent materials.