Glassware Heroes: using a virtual reality game to teach glassware assembly reduces mistakes made by laboratory novices

The first few weeks in a university level chemistry laboratory can be daunting and off-putting. Student safety is paramount, but, despite the best efforts of technicians and demonstrators, they cannot be everywhere. Here we describe the development and testing of an immersive, virtual reality (VR) laboratory simulation to teach correct glassware assembly procedure before entering a wet lab. Before attempting to assemble a reflux in real life, first year students were taught via one of three interventions: the VR game, an online game, or watching an instructional video. The VR group made $0.2\pm0.4$ mistakes, less than the other two interventions and statistically indistinguishable from experts, and reported higher enjoyment and confidence. We attribute these results to the higher realism and skeuomorphism of the VR intervention and the synergistic contribution embodied cognition to the procedural learning. We believe this demonstrates the usefulness of VR in chemistry education and suggest that VR-based pre-laboratory training offers an efficient route to increased safety and effectiveness to wet laboratory training.