2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The goal of this article is to look at the use of Augmented Reality (AR) technology in elementary schools for making students more engaged and to facilitate teamwork among them. It particularly focuses on the progress of the FrogAR_Connect app, an AR software that we developed to teach the life cycle of frogs. The application rethinks the old textbook method by turning the traditional content into an animated one. Students can now interact with 3D AR models, which aids them in the deeper understanding of scientific concepts. FrogAR_Connect is built on the two main pillars of situated learning theory and Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory. The Situated learning theory argues that learning is most effective when it is in a relevant context, therefore, making the knowledge more meaningful. Through the AR FrogAR_Connect, students will be immersed fully in a virtual life cycle of frogs, this approach enhances students' curriculum content by connecting theory with practical experience. The Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory underscores the significance of social interaction in the educational process. This is best exemplified by the idea of varying peer interactions within the activities, contributing to the improvement of the levels of critical thinking, exchange ideas and collaboratively tackle problems considering how this should be encouraged in the pedagogic process. A special highlight of our design is that the collaborative practices in FrogAR_Connect are tailored to support elementary students who are at different level of understanding to join the exploration.
Given the significance attributed to collaboration in educational literature, FrogAR_Connect was intentionally developed to enhance collaboration, with a specific focus on facilitating real-time collaboration among elementary students. Numerous augmented reality tools prioritize individual usage, thus restricting possibilities for collaborative opportunities for group learning. This gap is filled by FrogAR_Connect, the tool that helps students to work together and cooperate on the tasks concerned with the stages of the development of frogs life cycle. Moreover, the cooperative essence inherent in FrogAR_Connect, involvement will be increased and further social functions such as teamwork will be nurtured within the students as they are crucial for the complete educational growth. Then FrogAR_Connect goes beyond, since it has few benefits that outperform the traditional ways of learning. Where AR’s immersive nature proves to be more successful in capturing students attention compared to static images or videos. Furthermore, the ability to interact with 3D models proved a tangible experience that enhances understanding of complex biological processes.
The FrogAR_Connect has undergone advances and adjustments where the research team has conducted internal usability tests and rectified all the necessary modifications to ensure the tools is usable and ready to use. In terms of access, FrogAR_Connect has not been released to teachers and students but it is fully ready to be implemented once receiving the ethics approval. The following step involve seeking ethical approval to undertake a formal study to evaluate the use of FrogAR_Connect in classroom settings by teachers and students. The findings are expected to be most relevant in understanding the extent to which AR technologies can be used in educational platforms for achieving purposeful objectives and better student learning.