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Futu-AR is an AR app that we are prototyping in parallel to our VR content development. The app is currently focused on visualizing chemistry and learning to balance chemical reaction equations. 
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## 05.05- Second Futuclass AR test session with students

As Roland had made many improvements and students were back at school, it was time for Kristen and Arnold to test the AR app on students, face to face. 
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## Summary
The updated “find the correct” mode was successful. Students like it and could remember the fun facts about different molecules after playing the game. The new format has potential and most of the students could clear the game. A comparative testing has been done about our 2 different designs of the reaction balancing mode. A lot of meaningful feedback has been collected. They are very informative and provide us inspiration for further improvement.
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## General
- 16 students from 9th grade and 1  chemistry teacher took part of the lesson 
- Lesson was hosted physically in TERA : students were grouped into small groups of 2-3 people
- It was Futuclass AR ver. 0.08 that was tested
- Delivering the application to the students’ iPad via TestFlight was unsuccessful due to Apple School Management permission issue
- Alternatively, application was installed on the iPad provided by Futuclass
- Feedback form was created using Google Forms by Roland to let students fill them in after the testing session
- Overall 13 of 16 raised their hand if asked: “Would you like to learn chemistry using an analogous AR application.”
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## Actionable feedback 
- Could not exit the game to change the game mode when playing find the correct ->** Add a pop-up menu and gather all the functional buttons there including an exit button**
- Although taping to choose a molecule was intuitive after playing through find the correct, students still did multiple taps to feel confident. ->** Design a multiple tap confirmation feedback (on-screen or in AR)**
- One of the students managed to induce a crash by spamming reset. -> **Review implementation and block button spamming**
- More equations, more contents -> **Add more contents to the reaction balancing**
- When they look at all of the cards at the same time, 3-4 molecules are visualized and others are blinking. ->** due to environmental reflection, review if it is necessary or add a control allowing user to disable it**
- Many equations are balanced from the start. -> **Generate random multipliers for the equations at the beginning of the task**
- Game mode based on periodic table -> **Review the current design or create a new design to fit periodic table**
- Make the game more colorful -> **Polishing**
- Devices are hot and battery consuming fast ->** Study AR application performance tuning**
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## Find the correct
- More than 90% of the students could pass all the levels of the game
- 12 out of 16 students found the game easy (1 out of 5 points), the rest found the game fairly easy (2 out of 5 points)
- Most of the students like this game mode (12 out of 16 students with positive feedback)
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![joonis 1.PNG](/uploads/joonis_1_b3d51314f2.PNG)
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![joonis 2.PNG](/uploads/joonis_2_3fbea06f57.PNG)
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![joonis 3.PNG](/uploads/joonis_3_456eee7ea5.PNG)
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## Reaction balancing - on screen vs AR models
- Students thought the on-screen design is easier to understand
- More students prefer on-screen design (11/16) than the AR design
- Most of the students who prefer on-screen design think it is easier and simpler to use
- One of them replied it is because the molecule AR models become boring after completing several times
- Students who prefer AR design think it has a better visualization and is more interesting
- Brainstorm about the design of reaction balancing is necessary
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![joonis 4.PNG](/uploads/joonis_4_079e73f63c.PNG)
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![joonis 5.PNG](/uploads/joonis_5_560981e5b7.PNG)
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### Students quotes
- "This game has a lot of potential (energy, that can be transformed to kinetic energy what can be transformed to thermal energy, to warm the hearts of little kids on the path of learning)."
- "This seems to be more immediate and interesting"
- " it is simpler to balance, when you can visually see the molecules."


*This blog post was written by Roland.*




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Augmented Reality in Chemistry Education - Second Test Session in School  

Futu-AR is an AR app that we are prototyping in parallel to our VR content development. The app is currently focused on visualizing chemistry and learning to balance chemical reaction equations. 
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## 01.04- First Futuclass AR test session with students.

Kristen, Arnold and apprentice Roland from UT have been working on a side project - molecule visualisation and reaction balancing in Augmented Reality. Prototype version of the app is ready and had it's first test session in a public schools regular natural science class. Over the web. 
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## Summary
AR application has potential. Students liked the lesson and described it being interesting and fun, a lot more engaging than sitting and listening to the teacher. Brought out one specific game mode as their favorite. Natural science teacher said she'd use this app in her class. Problems we had during the test session were technical and are solvable. 
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## General
- 10 students from 7th grade and 1  chemistry teacher took part of the lesson - 11 testers in total (7x Android, 4x Iphone)
- Lesson was hosted on Zoom: everybody had their web cameras on for testers and teacher being able to track progress, help and make notes
- It was Futuclass AR ver. 0.07 that was tested, previous versions have been tested internally by Kristen and Arnold
- Teacher did a reflection round asking about what were the interesting fact that each of the students learned when playing the "Find the correct" mode. 
- Lesson was hosted in a stress free online chemistry lesson with a teacher that has good trust and relationship with her students. Meaning students aren't afraid to speak out. 
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## iOS vs. Android  
**2/7 Android** users were not able to run the app. Google Play store gave an issue that the app is not compatible with their phone. One of the students had Samsung A5. So probably both of them had older Android OS than Futuclass app requires (8.1).

**2/7 Android users had serious tracking issues**. One of them uses Xiaomi Redmi 9 and the other one Samsung A71. Examples: 
1) Showed only one molecule although two or several were in the focus area. Playing with the angle and phone distance didn't help.
2) Molecules were located in random places around the display area, not on top of their marker cards. 
3) Molecules didn't go away when markers were out of visual area. 
3/7 Android users were able to run the app without any problems - **43% of testers**

**4/4 Iphone** users had no issues with the app: tracking worked perfectly and everything ran smoothly - **100% of testers**
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## Actionable feedback 
- "Find the correct" asks for the same molecule too often (H2, Fe, S were mentioned).-> **Make the pool larger**
- Students who have a phone that isn't  compatible with the app feel left out -> **Define what is the criteria for the phone and OS beforehand **
- Some Android phones tracking in the app is very poor -> **Improve tracking **
- It is hard to measure educational impact and make notes if there are technical problems during the lesson ->** If we' d like an ideally working test session then we need to test in schools that have iPads available**
- Some molecules are missing the fun facts -> **Add fun facts for every molecule**
- "Find the correct" mode was this test groups favourite -> **Develop levels for this game mode, increase pool size**
- Same fact is presented multiple times if you get the same molecule -> **Multpile facts per substance**
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## Quotes from students
- "This way of studying is a lot better than just sitting and listening"
- "Much cooler than textbook and TV"
- "I liked that I got to know a fact about every molecule in Find the right game mode"
- "I really like that I can see molecules!"



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Augmented Reality in Chemistry Education - First Test Session in School  

Homeschooling is a globally growing education solution. This schooling
method gives parents and students more control over their own education
experience, rigor, and pace.  

Every January, America celebrates Educational Choice Week. More families
than ever are choosing to homeschool. In the United States alone, 4 to 5
million students are “homeschooled kids”, learning daily in a homeschool
environment. This number encompasses students from every demographic,
race, religion, and political background. The reasons to homeschool vary
from family to family, but there are some trending themes. So why do
people homeschool? This is a question that millions of parents asked
themselves amid school closures during the pandemic of 2020.  
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![A bar graph indicating the most commonly reported reasons to homeschool among surveyed families. Why do parents homeschool? 22% reported wanting to create a safe environment. 12% reported wanting increased instructional value and one on one attention. 9% reported a desire to inject morals and values into the daily routine in a more meaningful way. and 8% of parents reported discipline, class size, and religious environments as their reasons to homeschool. 76% of homeschool families are satisfied with their current education situation. This information is based on a 2019 National Survey published by EdChoice.](/uploads/Why_Do_People_Homeschool_0_d744cc727c.webp)
  
If you were forced into a pandemic-driven homeschool situation by your
child’s school district over the last year, you know that wearing the
hat of parent and teacher at the same time is extremely difficult. Why
would anyone choose to educate their child from home?
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## What does it mean to choose homeschool?

Homeschooling is a choice parents make to remove or never enroll their
school-age children in public or private schools in their district. Many
homeschool parents will argue that online chartered schools do NOT meet
the definition of “Homeschooling.”  
  
Homeschool parents cultivate their own learning programs by picking,
choosing, and combining different homeschool curriculums on the market.
Parents typically vet these curriculums themselves and adjust as
necessary until they find the best fit for their own child. They don’t
have to go it completely alone, though. Many homeschool families are
part of a larger community of homeschool families known as a “co-op”.

**Homeschool co-ops** are groups of families of homeschooled kids
working cooperatively to achieve common goals. Co-ops can organize
social events, community service projects, or field trips that bring
homeschool kids together.
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## How do homeschooled kids turn out? Will they be behind their publicly-educated peers?

Many families choose to teach their children at home despite false
theories about homeschooled kids. There are misconceptions about how
homeschooled kids develop socially and perform academically. Why do
people homeschool if their kids are going to be academically behind? Why
do people homeschool if homeschooled kids turn out ‘weird’?

![Three adult volunteers plant during a beautification project of some kind. Research indicates homeschooled kids volunteer and contribute to their community at higher rates than their institutionally educated peers.](/uploads/Why_Do_People_Homeschool_3_1cdfbc315c.webp)

While homeschooled children’s experiences may look different, the
National Home Education Research Institute reports that homeschool
students, on average score higher on SAT, ACT, and standardized testing
than students involved in institutional education. [NHERI reports that homeschooled kids](https://www.nheri.org/research-facts-on-homeschooling/#:~:text=The%20home%2Deducated%20typically%20score,on%20standardized%20academic%20achievement%20tests.&text=78%25%20of%20peer%2Dreviewed%20studies,schools%20(Ray%2C%202017).)
are more likely to participate in community-based volunteer work as an
adult than publicly schooled students. They also report data that
indicates homeschooled adults are more likely to vote, and are more
politically tolerant than their institutionally educated peers.
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## Top 6 Reasons to Homeschool According to Parents

While studies and surveys have turned up dozens of different reasons to
homeschool, there are about 6 emerging trends when this question is
brought up among homeschool parents and families. Futuclass decided to
dig into the depths of the internet’s data realm and figure out what
motivates families to pull their children from institutionalized
education. Why do people homeschool?

![Two boys wrapped in their blankets work on school work at their kitchen table, illustrating the most common answer to the question, &quot;Why do parents homeschool?&quot; Safety and control of their environment](/uploads/Why_Do_People_Homeschool_4_fb77976af0.webp)
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### 1. Safety and Control of Environment
Almost a quarter of surveyed parents cite safety and security as their
number one reason for choosing to homeschool their kids. With the rise
in school violence across the globe, parents fear the security
limitations of their local districts. 
 
Having complete control over their child’s educational environment
means many things to parents. It means reducing exposure to violence.
Eliminating the presence of drugs. Negating peer pressure - all things
that can go unchecked in crowded school hallways.

Bullying and cyberbullying are making headlines as students are
suffering at the hands of their peers. A lot of this behavior
originates at school and can be eliminated by pulling students out of
their public district or institution.

![](/uploads/Why_Do_People_Homeschool_5_a073da4751.webp)
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### 2. One on One Attention and Instructional Quality
Students who are struggling can ‘fly under the radar’ among a larger
class of their peers. We see this when class sizes get too large.
(Spoiler alert! Reason \#6)

But did you know that an **entire** class of students can ‘fly under
the radar’ among a group of same-aged peers? It’s a fact that some
school districts are providing sub-par or inadequate instruction in
one or more subjects. Those students are falling behind by national
comparison.  
  
There are a lot of reasons why a district is delivering lousy
instruction. They may be using flawed delivery methods. They may need
additional training to deliver the material. They may lack support
resources, materials, and technology. Schools are often not meeting or
even addressing basic education standards set forth by their governing
bodies.  
  
In these circumstances, the disparity between students and their
same-age peers grows year over year. The only solution some parents
see is to handle it on their own before it’s too late. Parents of homeschooled kids say they feel they can deliver higher quality
instruction at home than is available to their child within their home
district or alternative institutions.

![A young girl wears a t-shirt that says, Right to be Wrong, BE Free. Go Your Own Way. Injecting personal morals and values in a more meaningful way is one of the reasons to homeschool reported by surveyed parents.](/uploads/Why_Do_People_Homeschool_6_0ae1304c0d.webp)
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### 3. Morals and Values Instruction
While guidance counselors put a lot of effort into anti-bullying,
kindness, and activism programming in most public schools - it falls
short according to some parents. Raising good citizens is as important
as raising smart ones. Many parents cite their reasons to homeschool
as being backed by moral convictions. They want more community service
and volunteer opportunities integrated into their child’s education.  

Being productive members of society, and good stewards of the
environment and its resources are secondary to programming students
for standardized testing. It’s because of this lack of direct moral
lesson planning that some parents choose to educate their students at
home.

[NHERI reports that adults who were homeschooled](https://www.nheri.org/research-facts-on-homeschooling/#:~:text=The%20home%2Deducated%20typically%20score,on%20standardized%20academic%20achievement%20tests.&text=78%25%20of%20peer%2Dreviewed%20studies,schools%20(Ray%2C%202017).)
are more likely to internalize the values and beliefs of their parents
at a high rate, which is exactly what some homeschooling parents hope for.

![Many homeschool families want religion at the core of their curriculum, and that is why they choose to homeschool. This is an image of a bible, pages blowing in the wind at sunset.](/uploads/Why_Do_People_Homeschool_7_c217004094.webp)
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###  4. Religious Environment
With a clear line of separation between church and state, public
schools are not able to offer religion anything more than a historical
context. In the US, prayer and worship are now allowed in publicly
funded schools.

While this may seem to go hand-in-hand with the morals and values
instruction, parents who cite religious reasons for homeschool often
want a curriculum that is biblically or religiously based.  
  
They are looking not just for encouragement to be good citizens but to
adhere to their particular religious beliefs by ingraining them in as
much of the education process as possible. There are Christian,
Jewish, Muslim, and even Buddhist-based homeschool curriculums that
run a thick thread of religion through the center of their
programming.

![Lack of discipline for bullying is often one of the biggest reasons to homeschool according to surveyed parents. This image shows a boy wearing a backpack and headphones holding another boy up against a wall, gripping the front of his jacket. The boy on the wall looks frightened.](/uploads/Why_Do_People_Homeschool_8_1fb9ca9fbe.webp)
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###  5. Discipline
One of the many difficulties of being a school administrator is doling
out fair and appropriate discipline. It becomes a bone of contention
with parents who believe their child has been over-disciplined, or
that an aggressor has been under-disciplined.

Disagreements about discipline often boil down to published school
policy. With these policies in writing in widely distributed
handbooks, it doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle-room for discretion based
on circumstances. So a student smuggling a switchblade knife in their
locker ends up with the same punishment as the kid who forgot to take
their nerf gun out of their backpack this weekend.

This inability to compromise with parents on discipline has caused
plenty of parents to pull their children from school. This ensures
that they have complete control over proper discipline for academic
and behavioral infractions.

![Why Do People Homeschool 9.webp](/uploads/Why_Do_People_Homeschool_9_e69e8a391c.webp)
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###  6. Class Size

Large class sizes can overwhelm even the best teachers. Students who
are struggling get left in the dust. Students with special needs or
learning disabilities get lost in the shuffle. They often can’t be
given adequate accommodations to succeed.  
  
Having a huge class size eats up a lot of transitional time. This
means less time spent per day on meaningful instruction. This lost
instructional time translates into lower student achievement. Class
size is one of the first things parents ask when scoping out new or
potential school districts.  
   
Small class size can be a huge selling point or bragging right for a
school. It often goes hand in hand with increased student achievement.
One of top the reasons to homeschool comes back to keeping a child
from falling through the cracks. Parents want their child to get
meaningful instruction, and some individualized attention.  
  
So what causes huge class sizes? It boils down to budgets. School
districts can’t afford to add teachers, or building space to spread
students out and lower class size. This is something that is out of
parents’ control, and they find the solution in homeschooling.
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## How Do Parents Prepare Homeschooled Kids for the 21st Century?

Teaching students in 2021 is a different world than teaching students in
1995. Textbooks have transformed into iPads. Lunchmoney is loaded on
debit cards. Elective classes include subjects like computer-aided
drafting, computer programming, and advanced AP classes. Chemistry,
biology, and physics have become inquiry-based and hands-on.

!["A student sits at her desk at home with a VR headset at home. Virtual reality is one of the ways homeschool families are expanding their curriculum in new and innovative ways to keep their kids engaged](/uploads/Why_Do_People_Homeschool_10_ed0e184958.webp)
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How are parents possibly expected to keep up with these subjects at home - especially if they don’t have a modern teaching degree in their
toolbox? The simple answer is to rely on experts. Just like we’d call a
contractor to build an addition on our home, calling in the
professionals to construct parts of our child’s education can be
helpful.  
  
Why do parents homeschool if they don’t know how to teach it all? Not
even trained public school teachers know how to teach it all. This is
where Futuclass comes in. Homeschooled kids can experience engaging and
interactive chemistry, biology and physics lessons right in their own
homes, with no need for an expensive lab! Safety is one of the most
commonly cited reasons to homeschool.  
  
Subscribe to Futuclass’s newsletter to get all the latest updates on our
growing catalog of Virtual Reality Lessons for Homeschool Families.



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Futuclass
Blog

Augmented Reality in Chemistry Education - Second Test Session in School

Augmented Reality in Chemistry Education - First Test Session in School

Why Do People Homeschool?

Choose your store

FutuclassBlog

Augmented Reality in Chemistry Education - Second Test Session in School

Augmented Reality in Chemistry Education - First Test Session in School

Why Do People Homeschool?

Futuclass
Blog