His class didn’t have the chemistry tools they needed. So, Ky’lin Spears built them. He’s a student and has built a free molecule builder, periodic table, and chemistry simulations. His tool, Atomency, is free in any browser and collects no student information.
So today’s Wonderful Classroom Wednesday is featuring a student. Every school has them. The quiet students who figure things out. As you listen to Ky’lin, ask yourself – how can we nourish and encourage students to solve problems in classroom subjects that interest them?
Ky’lin taught himself to code from YouTube videos. If you teach chemistry, Atomency may be a free resource your students can use this week.
In short: A free chemistry and physics tool can now be written by a student. When his chemistry teacher had to keep delaying chemistry assignments because of lack of access to tools, Ky’lin started building a solution himself. He taught himself to code and built Atomency, a free browser-based chemistry platform. He shares how he built it and how teachers can use it with students this week.
Ky’lin’s class kept pushing back assignments because they didn’t have the lab equipment. Here’s what happened when one student decided to build what was missing.
Here’s where the facts in this episode come from, with the time stamp so you can hear each one. We recorded this conversation in April 2026. Checked October 13, 2026.
This transcript was generated using AI and has been reviewed by humans for accuracy. Minor errors or artifacts may remain but I worked my best to find any issues with the transcript as I reviewed the show. – Vicki
Vicki Davis (00:00): Today for Wonderful Classroom Wednesday, we’re featuring a student, Ky’lin Spears, in episode 1008, a student who created a website for chemistry when his school didn’t have what he needed. I hope you’ll look for the builders in your classroom, and if you teach chemistry, this may be a useful free resource for you.
Announcer (00:24): This is the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast with your host, Vicki Davis.
Vicki Davis (00:28): We’re talking with Ky’lin Spears, a 16-year-old student from Suitland, Maryland, who built a professional chemistry simulation platform called Atomency. He built it from scratch because his school did not have lab equipment. Atomency is free, works in any browser, requires no login, collects no student data, and works offline.
And now his school district is looking at adopting it. Now we’re working to feature student voices, but when we do this, because of the wide distribution of Cool Cat Teacher Talk and 10 Minute Teacher, if you’re watching on video, you will not see Ky’lin’s image.
And that is just fine with us. But I did want to let you know we have his parents’ permission. So, Ky’lin, tell me the story. The moment you realized your school didn’t have what you needed to learn chemistry, and what was that like and how did you work to solve the problem?
Ky’lin Spears (01:25): I transferred to Maryland from Arizona school and I had just moved out here. I went to my chemistry class and a lot of moments and times where we got our [due] dates to do an assignment pushed back because we didn’t have the chemical tools and lab equipment that we needed to do that.
We had to use a old, outdated PhET simulator that wasn’t really the greatest. I just decided I could probably make a tool similar to these that’s more modern, more useful. And we won’t have our [due] dates for assignments pushed back because of the lack of lab equipment.
So I started building it. And a few months later, I had a working tool to show my teacher.
Vicki Davis (02:00): Tell us a little bit about how you built it. How did you do it?
Ky’lin Spears (02:04): I coded it completely from scratch with no AI. I knew that I didn’t want to have to pay for a server. So I made it serverless with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I made everything through research through Google and completely serverless. And it’s a web app, so it can be downloaded as well.
I’m self-taught. I’ve been teaching myself how to program with YouTube since about when I was nine or 10 years old.
Vicki Davis (02:27): Wow. I really want to get at the trigger of what made you think, I’m going to build something. I’m not going to settle for this because I want to learn.
Ky’lin Spears (02:35): What made me build something like that is because I saw how outdated the tools were that we were using at my school. And I also seen a lot of students in my classroom struggling to use the tool, asking me for help. I just knew that the school needed better and that I could provide better.
Vicki Davis (02:52): What was the first simulation or activity you put in Atomency? And did you share it with your teacher?
Ky’lin Spears (03:00): Yes. The first thing that I built was a simple periodic table. I had all of the elements, attributes, like the molecular weight and everything like that listed for each and every element. I went and showed my chemistry teacher the periodic table. I added like a simple, molecular builder where you can add two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom and get H2O.
And I showed him that and he seemed to like it. I kept building it and he encouraged me to continue building it.
Vicki Davis (03:27): So when you shared it with your classmates, did they feel like it made chemistry easier?
Ky’lin Spears (03:31): I showed it with a few classmates individually and they were really impressed by it. They thought that it was easier to use than tools that we had before. A lot of people just encouraged me to keep going. So I kept building and building until eventually it is where it is now.
Vicki Davis (03:45): So you’re 16, you’re busy, you’re running track, you’re going to school. What keeps you going when it gets hard? Like, why would you do this as a side hobby?
Ky’lin Spears (03:54): I like programming and I like chemistry. And together, I love the project. I love the task. I love improving it. I just like the progression of building the tool. And it doesn’t really feel like a task to me. It feels like something that I love to do.
Vicki Davis (04:08): Okay. So what was the hardest part of this whole process? Did you have a moment where you almost gave up?
Ky’lin Spears (04:13): Building the molecular builder, it was very hard. There’s a lot of different calculations and equations of rules that go into, how molecules form, how they bond, all things like that. And it kept breaking. It broke maybe over 50 times, but I eventually fixed it not too long ago.
I felt great when I fixed it. I didn’t believe it at first. I tested it probably over a hundred times, but it was working.
Vicki Davis (04:39): You made Atomency completely free with no login and no data collection. Why was that so important to you?
Ky’lin Spears (04:47): I had to make sure that there was no data collection because I know that schools have extra processes that they have to go through in order for tools to be passed when they do collect and handle students’ data because it’s hard to get a tool approved when you are collecting the students’ data.
And I also made sure to make it free for all of my classmates to use so that they can use it on their assignments, use it to help them understand chemistry because I know a lot of people in my area and in my school don’t necessarily have the resources and money to be paying for an expensive chemistry tool for one class.
Vicki Davis (05:20): So talk to all the students who may be listening to you, Ky’lin. What’s your word to them when they come up with a problem at school? What’s your encouragement?
Ky’lin Spears (05:28): I would say just go ahead and try to build it. There’s a lot of resources out there like AI, ChatGPT, a lot of things that can help them get it done if they just have the idea. There’s a lot of people who can support them. A lot of podcasts that can be on to get the word out there and it can really grow into something.
Just never be afraid to do what you want to do and try something.
Vicki Davis (05:48): So Ky’lin, if a chemistry teacher right now is listening to us, how could they use Atomency in a lesson this week?
Ky’lin Spears (05:55): They can use Atomency in a lesson this week by, for example, telling a student to create a molecule that has a weight of over 20 and then just tell the students to keep trying to build a molecule that qualifies for all of the properties that they’ve set. Water molecules, for example, turns liquid at a certain temperature.
They can have students keep adding atoms to the molecular builder until they can get a molecule that fits what they’re saying.
Vicki Davis (06:22): Do you feel like you understand chemistry better from building this app?
Ky’lin Spears (06:25): Yeah, I did a lot of research and learned a lot along the way. I feel like it’s made me a better chemistry student. It’s increased my understanding of chemistry overall.
Vicki Davis (06:35): Ky’lin, you reached out to me. You left a message on my website about what you have built. Were you working to promote and tell people about it? Like, how did you find me? What’d you do?
Ky’lin Spears (06:44): I looked at a lot of podcasts and a lot of news stations and a lot of different people who might want to cover this or who would be helpful to get my project out there to the right people and emailed a lot of different people out there.
Vicki Davis (06:58): So you said I’m your first podcast. Where all are you going to appear? Do you have any other ones?
Ky’lin Spears (07:02): This is my first podcast, but I do have a news article with patch.com coming up.
Vicki Davis (07:07): So Ky’lin, I teach students. I think that teenagers are awesome and there’s so many talented teenagers and you feel like your generation gets a bad rap? Like, what do you want people to know about your generation?
Ky’lin Spears (07:20): I want them to know that our generation understands technology and what can be done with technology. And even though it might not be done like how it was preferred, back in the day, just using our resources to our advantage.
Vicki Davis (07:32): So you have a message to all the parents out there about encouraging their children to do like you’re doing?
Ky’lin Spears (07:39): I do encourage parents to allow their children to build and just use technology to the best that they can.
Vicki Davis (07:46): What’s your dream? What’s next?
Ky’lin Spears (07:48): My dream is for Atomency to be adopted into multiple different high schools. And eventually, I do want to attend Harvard University.
Vicki Davis (07:58): With your dream of attending Harvard, what do you want to major in? You want to do computer science or do you want to do another field?
Ky’lin Spears (08:03): I’m interested in both computer science and chemical engineering. I’m not sure which one I want to lean towards yet, but I am interested in both.
Vicki Davis (08:11): They’re kind of coming together in so many different ways. Ky’lin Spears, 16-year-old from Maryland who has built Atomency. That’s A-T-O-M-E-N-C-Y. Ky’lin, I think this is just such a refreshing and an exciting story. And I’m excited for you. Congratulations. I am so interested in why you didn’t quit after having 50 failures with trying to create this molecular builder.
I mean, that is just so fascinating to me. What’s your word to students who are struggling with failure? It’s something they’re trying to do and why they should keep going.
Ky’lin Spears (08:49): I would tell them that failure is just a part of life. You’re going to fail plenty of times and you will rarely ever succeed on the first try. And if you do succeed on the first try, you missed a few opportunities to learn and to enhance your knowledge on the subject.
Vicki Davis (09:02): Awesome. Well, we’ve been talking to Ky’lin Spears. Ky’lin, thanks for reaching out. Thanks for coming on the show. Good luck with your app. And I appreciate you coming on.
Ky’lin Spears (09:11): Thank you.
Announcer (09:11): Thank you for tuning in to the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast. Join us here every weekday and subscribe to the Classroom Matters newsletter. See you later, educator.
Ky’lin Spears is a 16-year-old high school junior at Suitland High School in Prince George’s County, Maryland and the founder of Atomency. Atomency (https://atomency.com) is a browser-based chemistry simulation platform designed for classroom instruction that allows students to build molecules, explore molecular geometry, simulate chemical reactions, and model nuclear decay directly in their browser without accounts or downloads. The platform supports over 110 million possible molecular structures and was built independently by Ky’lin to help make complex chemistry concepts more visual and interactive for students. He is currently working toward evaluation of the platform for classroom use in Prince George’s County Public Schools and is interested in studying computer science and chemical engineering in college.
Bio as of April 2026, when we recorded.
If this episode helped you, please rate or review the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast wherever you listen. It helps other teachers find the show.
