What if students could explore crystal structures not only on a page or screen, but walk around them, rotate them, scale them, and investigate them together in augmented reality? A new peer-reviewed book chapter by Timon Saatzer, Sabrina Syskowski, Miriam M. Unterlass, and Johannes Huwer presents the results of an exploratory study on the use of head-mounted augmented reality (AR) in solid-state chemistry teaching. The approach was developed as part of the FCI-funded project “Fest-VAn – Festkörperchemie virtuell Anfassen mit Head-Mounted Display” and implemented in teaching at the University of Konstanz. The study shows that students responded very positively to collaboratively exploring 3D crystal structures in AR, particularly valuing the opportunity to interact with structures and examine them freely from different perspectives. The chapter is published in the open-access volume Progress in Digitalisation in Chemistry Education and is freely available online here. Congratulations to all authors, and many thanks to everyone involved in the project and to the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie for supporting the original project!
