Education Technology

Virtual Labs is a collection of 4 virtual labs from South Dakota State University (SDSU) and New Mexico State University (NMSU). The 4 virtual labs are: Testing for Corn Mold, Disposable Lab Equipment, Gram Staining and Using the Microscope.


These labs are a great way to teach high school and college students some basic lab techniques before actually doing the lab. They are also a good substitute if your school does not have the ability to actually do these labs. The labs start with a scenario (why they are doing this) in a realistic setting, and then proceed to teach the lab step-by-step. They are well designed and a great resource.

BioLogica is a site that has interactive labs and learning activities on biology that help students learn concepts. Students work through the activities, get feedback and hints and create a portfolio of their work.


BioLogica runs on Windows and Mac's. It doesn't just help students learn concepts in Biology, it also helps them make connections between different concepts and ideas. It focuses on genetics, including helping students to learn the parts, processes, and mechanisms of genetics.

The activities pose a problem for the students and then lets them solve it. The software will have the students explain their reasoning, help them with hints and eve suggest additional resources and material to help them. Teachers can monitor student performance and collect the student work into electronic portfolios.

There are also 3D interactive models of the cell on the site. These are great for helping students learn about the cell.


There are demos of the activities on the site and you can download a free copy of the prototype version of the software.  http://biologica.concord.org/index.html

Viscosity Explorer is a simple site that allows you to explore the concept of viscosity. It consists of two containers and two steel balls. You select the liquid you want in the container, then drop the ball and observe what happens. You can also change the temperature of the liquid. Students can easily compare the viscosity of two different substances side by side.

It's a great site for science classes, and much faster, cheaper, and less messy than doing this for real. I would, however, want to at least demo the real liquids and pour them from container to container to show how the flow of the fluids is different based on the viscosity.




Related:

PhET - excellent, free, virtual labs and simulations for science

PhET is an awesome resource from the University of Colorado at Boulder. The site has interactive simulations for physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and math that teachers and students can use.

The simulations can be run on the site or downloaded. The simulations are accurate and real and can help students learn concepts in more depth. They are easy and fun to use, and really do demonstrate the concepts well. In the physics ones I use, a big benefit is that students can quickly and easily change variables and conditions and then see what happens. This is very hard and time consuming in many hands on labs. Students can also visualize things that are hard to see in a hands-on lab, such as magnetic field lines, and electron flow.

The simulations are also a great alternative to live labs if you don't have the resources available. Some of the simulations are better than any hands on lab because the students can truly see and understand what is happening.

You can search by topic, grade level, or just see the newest ones added. There are teacher resources for many of the simulations. Teachers who use the simulations post lesson plans and resources to the site for others to use also. These teacher created lesson plans and lab sheets are excellent and free for all to use.

I use the Physics simulations in my classroom and they work great. This is one of those sites that every science and math teacher needs to check out.

Here's a list of some of the new simulations they have and there are more simulations, and resources, being added all the time.