Mitigating spatial visualization challenges in materials science education through a low‐cost mobile augmented reality system

Abstract

The study of materials science concepts, such as crystallographic structures, poses well-known pedagogical challenges due to the spatial visualization demands imposed by traditional two-dimensional representations. To address these challenges, this paper presents CeldApp, a low-cost mobile system that integrates interactive visualization and augmented reality to support the learning of core materials science topics. The system provides a set of modular 3D learning environments covering crystallization processes, crystal structures, and phase diagram analysis, enabling students to actively explore abstract concepts through direct manipulation and immediate visual feedback. The educational impact of the proposed system was investigated through a controlled pilot study employing a pretest–posttest design with parallel groups in an undergraduate materials science course. Learning gain, task completion time, and user experience were considered as evaluation measures. While between-group differences in learning gain did not reach conventional levels of statistical significance, the experimental group exhibited a consistent positive trend with a moderate effect size. Notably, participants using the system demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in task completion time, suggesting improved efficiency in knowledge retrieval and problem-solving. Qualitative feedback further indicated high perceived usability and strong educational value of the augmented reality components. Taken together, these findings suggest that accessible, low-cost immersive visualization tools hold promise for mitigating spatial visualization challenges in materials science education and motivate further large-scale investigation.