Since the 1990s, the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany has emphasised the importance and significance of media education and media use in schools. Most recently, this was highlighted in 2017 in the strategy paper "Education in the Digital World". Digital media and the opportunities they offer for teaching and learning have been brought more into focus. Digital learning environments are to be integrated into teaching in accordance with the curricular requirements.

A central concept in chemistry is the structure of matter. In the lessons, it is taught in a spiral curriculum, usually starting in grades 6 and 7, using the Dalton atomic model, before this is expanded in grades 9 and 10 to a differentiated atomic model (e.g. the Bohr atomic model). Due to the high level of abstraction and the lack of suitable experiments to develop central aspects of the concept, it is particularly suitable for the integration into a digital learning environment. For this PhD project, a digital learning environment for the introduction of Bohr's atomic model, based on the core curriculum chemistry for the Gymnasium in Lower Saxony was developed in exchange with teachers and researchers. In several modules, pupils can work together in class with their teacher, or independently, on the step-by-step development from Dalton's atomic model to the energy level model of the atom. Various materials were developed and integrated for this purpose. The unit was used and evaluated in face-to-face lessons in autumn 2020 and in distance learning in spring 2021. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using a mixed-methods approach.