When most people think of Augmented Reality (AR), they think of games like Pokémon GO, but the possibilities of AR go far beyond mere entertainment and spectacle. AR is transforming education into an even more exciting and engaging experience as well as a visual treat. Here are some AR apps that are already making learning more immersive and entertaining for people of all ages.

Elements 4D

Elements 4D adds an element of play to chemistry lessons. Part toy, part chemistry experiment, Elements 4D gives students the opportunity to create chemical reactions that would be too difficult or dangerous to complete in real life.

The app lets you use your phone to project different elements onto six cubes which can be printed and made out of paper. These blocks transform on the screen into colourful and bright cases holding elements inside them. By pushing the cubes together, you can combine the elements in visually stunning chemical reactions and create compounds.

The app’s website includes chemistry lesson plans to inspire students across different levels of schooling.

BBC Civilisations AR

BBC’s Civilisations AR app lets you admire various historical artefacts, locating, rotating and resizing them as you see fit. After selecting the artefacts via a world globe projected in front of you, you can listen to BBC records about the artefacts, and even interact in interesting ways, such as X-Raying an Egyptian sarcophagus to see the mummy inside or restore a Corinthian helmet to its original state.

You can place these objects and statues in the real world, creating a bridge between eras and transforming your home into a museum, while learning about ancient history.

Anatomy 4D

The incredibly innovative Anatomy 4D allows students to bring human anatomy into the real world in ways that would otherwise be impossible. The app provides a visually impressive, immersive and interactive experience by projecting the image of a human being and allowing you to view layers and systems separately in great detail or together to see how they connect to build a human being.

Users can also do the same thing with a projected human heart, activating and deactivating blood flow at will. This exciting new way of exploring human biology brings a study to life that was once confined to diagrams and videos.

Froggipedia

Froggipedia is a fun app that provides an insightful experience into the biology and development of frogs – but be warned, it is not for the faint of heart.

The app helps you to explore and experience the unique and interesting lifecycle of a frog from its inception as a single-celled egg, through evolution as a tadpole, all the way to being fully-grown frog.

The app even lets you dissect an AR frog or seeing a frog’s layers transparently to view its biological system.

Mondly

Mondly creates an incredibly interactive and dynamic opportunity to learn a new language.

The amazing thing that separates Mondly from other language apps is that it lets you learn new languages using immersive augmented reality, blending AR elements with the real world for a unique and all-encompassing experience.

The app features your own personal tutor projected into the real world through your phone or tablet, who will teach you different words while creating living CGI examples of the words in front of you, like roaring Lions and gigantic elephants that stomp through your home.

Your tutor will even practice conversations with you interactively, transforming into different personas for each interaction.