VIRTUAL LABS

Peter Remyn

Palm BayHigh School.

Ever wish you have your students do more in depth labs, labs where expensive equipment, or hazardous materials are prohibited. With Virtual Labs you can do just that. Imagine doing Restriction Enzyme Cleavage and Electrophoresis with your Biology class. Or Millikan’s Oil Drop Experiment in chemistry. And in Physics, or Physical Science you could do the Investigating the Properties of Alpha and Beta Particles Lab, or the Making Sense of Density lab.

There are three Virtual Labs available. One in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics/Physical Science. The Biology Virtual Lab has 20 experiments, the Chemistry Virtual Lab has 30 experiments, and the Physics/Physical Science Virtual Lab has 55 experiments.

I hope you can take the time to check out this useful software. I believe this can help us all be more effective and efficient in our teaching methods.

Below is a list of the experiments available in the Virtual Lab format:

BIOLOGY

  1. Catalase action in living tissue
  2. The effect of temperature on undissolved oxygen
  3. Diffusion through a selectively permeable membrane
  4. Osmosis through a selectively permeable membrane
  5. Onion cell plasmolysis
  6. Paper chromatography
  7. Light-Dependent reactions
  8. Cell respiration
  9. Mitosis in plant cells
  10. Comparing Mitosis in plant and animal cells
  11. Restriction enzyme cleavage and electrophoresis
  12. Bacterial Transformation-Ampicillin resistance
  13. Estimating allele frequencies for one trait within a sample population
  14. Testing an Ideal Hardy-Weinberg population
  15. Selection against a deleterious allel
  16. Examining plant stem structures
  17. The influence of temperature on heart rate in Daphnia
  18. Orientation behavior in Sowbugs
  19. Courtship and breeding behavior in Drosophila melanogaster
  20. A test of cardiovascular Fitness

CHEMISTRY

  1. Acid-base titration
  2. analysis of anions and cations
  3. analysis of baking sofa
  4. Atomic emission spectra
  5. Atomic structure: Rutherford’s Experiment
  6. Counting by measuring mass
  7. Determination of the Universal Gas Constant
  8. Determination of the unknown molecular mass using acid-base titration
  9. Electrolysis
  10. Enthalpy and Entropy
  11. Electronic state energy levels
  12. Heat of combustion of sugar
  13. Heat of fusion of ice
  14. Heats of reaction
  15. Identification of Anions and Cations in solution
  16. Investigation of gas pressure and mass
  17. Ionization constants of weal acids
  18. Millikan oil drop experiment
  19. Names and formulas of ionic compounds
  20. Oxidation-reduction reactions/titrations
  21. Photoelectric effect
  22. Precipitation reactions: Formation of solids
  23. Pressure-Volume relationship for a gas
  24. Qualitative Analysis
  25. Real Gases vs. Ideal Gases
  26. Temperature-Volume relationship for a Gas
  27. The Specific Heat of a metal
  28. Thomson Experiment
  29. Two split Photon Emission

PHYSICS/PHYSICAL SCIENCE

  1. Making sense of density
  2. Investigation of gas pressure and mass
  3. Pressure and volume of a gas
  4. Pressure and temperature of a gas
  5. Changes between solids and liquids
  6. Changes between liquids and gas
  7. Thomson and smaller parts of atoms
  8. Rutherford and the nucleus
  9. Elements and the periodic table
  10. Density of solids and liquids
  11. Creating chemical compounds
  12. Names and formulas of ionic compounds
  13. Describing chemical reactions
  14. Using energy to observe chemical change
  15. Boiling point elevation
  16. Endothermic vs. Exothermic
  17. Acid-Base reactions
  18. Energy of a chemical reaction
  19. Measuring Speed
  20. Graphing motion
  21. Acceleration
  22. Forces
  23. Measuring Friction: A sticky topic
  24. Acceleration and friction
  25. Gravity and free fall
  26. Newton’s First Law
  27. Newton’s Second Law
  28. Newton’s Third Law
  29. Conservation of Momentum
  30. Floating Objects
  31. Density and Buoyancy
  32. The work of the Egyptians
  33. Falling elevator
  34. Thermal energy
  35. Potential energy to Kinetic energy
  36. Temperature and volume of a gas
  37. Specific Heat
  38. Blackbody radiation
  39. Wave properties of light
  40. Particle properties of light
  41. Atomic emission of spectra
  42. Plane mirror images
  43. Convex mirror images
  44. Looking at images
  45. Ohm’s law
  46. Circuit Diagram
  47. Building Electrical Circuits
  48. Making observation of our solar system
  49. Tracking the phases of the moon
  50. Measuring the orbital speed of the planets
  51. How strong is gravity?
  52. Why Pluto is not a planet