Virtual Labs

posted march 24, 2021, 9:04 AM by Laurel Palli ‎(2023)

Due to covid, many students have found they have completed remote learning and virtual activities. This can be especially hard for the science classes where labs are done frequently. However, as the course adapts to the pandemic, something called a virtual lab is used. This may sound crazy because a lab is where you and maybe your peers experiment with specific tools and materials to accept or reject a hypothesis, so how does this translate into a virtual lab?

A virtual lab is an on-screen simulator or calculator that helps test ideas and observe results. Learners use high-level technology, which is a technology that requires the most sophisticated scientific equipment and advanced engineering techniques, like microelectronics, data processing, genetic engineering, or telecommunications. They use high-level data processing technology to conduct a series of experiments that produces authentic results. Collaborating with your peers is less effective or nonexistent in a virtual lab, but there are some benefits. For instance, the virtual lab is less costly (no need to buy equipment), and the virtual lab can also simulate any level of scale, complexity, or abstraction. Also, they can be completed anywhere with the internet at any time.

Virtual labs can be used in a variety of ways. In my experience, my physics teacher has used virtual labs to further expand our understanding of different topics like Mechanical energy and Gravity. I found the virtual lab to be extremely user-friendly and beneficial to my comprehension of such topics because it disproved my misconceptions. These virtual labs also strengthened my knowledge of what we were learning as they allowed me to control everything about the lab so I could look at many unique scenarios and how they would affect the final results. Nevertheless, I don’t think the virtual lab will ever be able to replace the traditional lab experience. In the traditional lab, you get to collaborate with your peers and experience hands-on learning which, to be honest, is much more exciting.

https://www.talentlms.com/blog/virtual-laboratories-elearning/