Moleculous: Gamifying Chemistry Education for Students

Understanding complex structures of molecules is crucial for Pharmaceutical Sciences students. But it is often not easy to gain insight into complicated chemical formulas. However, the spatial, three-dimensional structure of a molecule (= active ingredient of a medicine) determines the medicinal effect of a medicine. This knowledge therefore forms an important link within pharmaceutical education, with a specific focus on drug development.

Visualization software has therefore been available for some time to illustrate complex structures, but it is often not optimally tailored to the specific needs of students.

Helping students

The Moleculous team at KU Leuven therefore started from the fundamental question: how can we help all students to gain faster and more thorough insight into the spatial structure of molecules? The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences worked together with the Biomedical Technology Lab to find a digital solution that meets all needs.

The result, the computer application Moleculous, visualizes molecular structures and enables students to build their own molecules step by step. During this process, the student also receives feedback to promote the effective learning process. Students can work on their own computer, but the faculty also offers the program in PC rooms for shared use.

‘Thanks to Moleculous, our students discover in a fun way how Lewis structures of organic molecules are built up. In addition, these structures are linked to an interactive 3D representation of that molecule. In this way, students can better imagine what molecules look like in three-dimensional space, which is extremely important for later gaining a deeper mechanistic insight into organic reactions,” says Prof. Peter Verwilst (organic chemistry teacher).

Moleculous is unique because, unlike traditional methods that often rely on physical models or 2D drawings, it opens up new possibilities for interactive 3D visualizations for teaching and learning. Moreover, Moleculous is also unique in that it is intended solely for education. The application is tailored to, among others, the General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry courses in the Bachelor’s program in Pharmaceutical Sciences. The integration into education ensures a seamless learning experience, where students can practice the knowledge from the lecture and apply it in the application.

Gamification

For the design and development of Moleculous, the game developers at the Biomedical Technology Lab used the advanced Unreal Engine 5, which is often used for the development of PC and console games. By using a game engine it was possible to integrate gamification, for example by adapting the level of the exercises to the knowledge level of the students and offering rewards in the form of new exercises and environments when a new learning level is reached. reaches. Through extensive optimizations and the use of the latest upscaling techniques such as AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution, a high degree of visual fidelity can be provided on less powerful computers and laptops.

‘Moleculous combines chemistry and gamification. Players are guided step by step in building correct lewis structures. This sharpens the spatial insight into molecules. -Nice game!’ says Riet Ramaekers (teacher of General Chemistry practice sessions).

And the students are also enthusiastic: ‘It is a nice, playful way to study the material. This makes it not feel like something that has to be done, but rather something that I want to do myself,” says student Niamh Mc Donagh.