Virtual work in chemistry. Virtual laboratories for distance learning, universities and schools

Visualization is one of the most effective teaching methods, helping to understand the essence of various phenomena much more easily and deeply; it is not without reason that visual aids have been used since ancient times. Visualization and modeling are especially useful when studying dynamic, time-varying objects and phenomena that can be difficult to understand by looking at a simple static picture in a regular textbook. Laboratory work and educational experiments are not only useful, but also very interesting - with appropriate organization, of course.

Not all educational experiments can or should be carried out in “real” mode. It is not surprising that computer modeling technologies quickly came to this area. There are now a number of software packages on the market designed to carry out virtual educational experiments. This review will examine a relatively new aspect of such solutions: virtual online laboratories. With their help, you can conduct computer experiments without purchasing additional programs, and at any convenient time, you would have access to the Internet.

Several trends are now observed in the development of modern network projects of this kind. The first is dispersion over a significant amount of resources. Along with large projects that accumulate a significant amount of content, there are many sites that contain a small number of laboratories. The second trend is the presence of both multi-industry projects offering laboratories for various fields of knowledge, and thematic specialized projects. Finally, it should be noted that laboratories dedicated to the natural sciences are best represented online. Indeed: physical experiments in general can be a very expensive undertaking, but a computer laboratory allows you to look behind the scenes of complex processes. Chemistry also benefits: there is no need to purchase real reagents, laboratory equipment, and there is no fear of spoiling anything in case of an error. An equally fertile field for virtual laboratory workshops is biology and ecology. It is no secret that a detailed study of a biological object often ends in its death. Ecological systems are large and complex, so the use of virtual models makes it possible to simplify their perception.

Our review includes several of the most interesting online projects, both multidisciplinary and thematic. All web resources in this review are sites with open, free access.

VirtuLab

The VirtuLab resource is the largest collection of virtual experiences in various academic disciplines on the modern RuNet. The main unit of the collection is a virtual experiment. From a technical point of view, this is an interactive video made using Adobe Flash. Some laboratories are made in three-dimensional graphics. To work with them you will need to install Adobe Shockwave Player with the Havok Physics Scene add-on. You can find this add-on on director-online.com. You need to unpack the resulting archive into the Xtras directory of your Adobe Shockwave Player, which is located in the Windows system directory.

VirtuLab resource is the largest collection of virtual online
laboratoriesin Russian

Each video allows you to conduct an experiment that has an educational purpose and a clear task. The user is offered all the tools and objects necessary to obtain the result. Tasks and tips are displayed as text messages. VirtuLab videos have a strong educational aspect, for example, if the user makes a mistake, the system will not allow him further until the error is corrected.

VirtuLab's collection of experiments is quite extensive and varied. VirtuLab does not have its own built-in search engine, so in order to find the experiment you need, you just have to scroll through the sections of the catalog. The archive is divided into four main blocks: “Physics”, “Chemistry”, “Biology” and “Ecology”. Within them there are narrower thematic sections. In particular, for physics these are sections of this discipline. There are experiments to get acquainted with mechanics, electrical and optical effects. A number of laboratories are designed in 3D graphics, which helps demonstrate a variety of experiments: from experiments with dynamometers to refraction and other optical effects.

In “Biology”, the basis of the division was the classes of the school curriculum. The content of tasks here can be very different. Thus, there are tasks for studying the structural features of various living organisms (for example, a construction set for assembling all kinds of organisms from the proposed “parts”) and tasks that simulate working with a microscope and with preparations of various tissues.

The PhET website is a multidisciplinary collection of Java applets,
which you can work with both online and on your local computer

Separately, in the Cutting Edge Research section, demos dedicated to the latest research are highlighted. New items appear in the archive regularly; the New Sims section is dedicated to them.

Pay attention to the Translated Sims subsection. This page contains a list of all languages ​​into which the offered virtual labs have been translated. There is also a Russian among them - there are exactly fifty such experiments here today. It is curious that the number of demonstrations in English, Serbian and Hungarian is almost equal. If you wish, you can take part in translating demonstrations. A special application, PhET Translation Utility, is offered for this purpose.

What are PhET demonstrations and who can benefit from them? They are built on Java technology. This allows you to run experiments online, download applets to your local computer, and embed them on other web pages as widgets. All of these options are provided on each PhET demo page.

All PhET experiments are interactive. They contain one or more tasks, as well as a set of all the elements necessary to solve them. Since the solution is usually explained in sufficient detail in text notes, the main purpose of the demonstrations is to visualize and explain the effects, and not to test the user's knowledge and skills. Thus, one of the demonstrations of the chemical section suggests making molecules from the proposed atoms and looking at a three-dimensional visualization of the result. In the biological section there is a calculator for the balance of a person’s calorie consumption during the day: you can indicate the types and quantities of food consumed, as well as the amount of physical exercise. Then all that remains is to observe the changes in the experimental “little man” of a given age, height and initial weight. The mathematics section boasts very useful tools for plotting various functions, arithmetic games and other interesting applications. The physics section offers a wide range of "labs" demonstrating a variety of phenomena - from simple motion to quantum interactions.

PhET
Grade: 4
Interface language: English, Russian available
Developer: University of Colorado
Website: phet.colorado.edu

Wolfram Demonstrations Project

A very valuable source of online labs is the multidisciplinary Wolfram Demonstrations Project. The goal of the project is to clearly demonstrate the concepts of modern science and technology. Wolfram claims to be a single platform to create a unified catalog of online interactive laboratories. This, according to its developers, will allow users to avoid problems associated with the use of heterogeneous learning resources and development platforms.

The Wolfram Demonstrations Project catalog contains more than 7 thousand.
virtual laboratories

This site is part of a large Internet project called Wolfram. The Wolfram Demonstrations Project currently has an impressive catalog of over 7,000 interactive demos.

The technological basis for creating laboratories and demonstrations is the Wolfram Mathematica package. To view the demos, you will need to download and install the special Wolfram CDF Player, which is just over 150 MB in size.

The project catalog consists of 11 main sections related to various branches of knowledge and human activity. There are large physical, chemical and mathematical sections, as well as those devoted to technology and engineering. Biological sciences are well represented. The levels of complexity of models, as well as the levels of presentation, are very different. The catalog contains quite complex demonstrations aimed at higher education; many laboratories are devoted to illustrating the latest scientific achievements. At the same time, the site also has sections intended for children. The language barrier may be a certain inconvenience: the Wolfram project is currently purely English-language. However, there is little text in the demos and laboratories, the control tools are quite simple, and they are easy to understand without prompts.

There are no specific tasks or control over their implementation. However, the content cannot be simply called presentations or videos. There's a fair amount of interactivity in Wolfram's demos. Almost all of them have tools that help change the parameters of the objects being represented, thereby conducting virtual experiments on them. This contributes to a deeper understanding of the processes and phenomena demonstrated.

Wolfram Demonstrations Project
Grade: 4
Interface language: English
Developer: Wolfram Demonstrations Project & Contributors
Website: demonstrations.wolfram.com

IrYdium Chemistry Lab

In addition to “multi-industry” projects on the modern Web, there are many specialized online laboratories dedicated to certain sciences. Let's start with The ChemCollective, a project dedicated to the study of chemistry. It contains a lot of thematic materials in English. One of its most interesting sections is its own virtual laboratory called IrYdium Chemistry Lab. Its structure is noticeably different from all the projects discussed above. The fact is that there are no specific, specific experiments with their own tasks offered here. Instead, the user is given almost complete freedom of action.

IrYdium online chemistry laboratory is different
high flexibility in setup and operation

The laboratory was created in the form of a Java applet. By the way, it can be downloaded and run on your local computer - the corresponding download link is located on the main page of the project.

The applet interface is divided into several zones. In the middle there is a workspace in which the progress of the experiment is displayed. The right column is a kind of “dashboard” - it displays information about the reactions taking place: temperature, acidity, molarity and other auxiliary data. On the left side of the applet there is the so-called “Reagent Warehouse”. This is a set of all kinds of virtual reagents, made in the form of a hierarchical tree. Here you can find acids, bases, indicator substances and everything else that an experimental chemist needs. To work with them, a good selection of various laboratory glassware, a burner, scales and other equipment are offered. As a result, the user has at his disposal a well-equipped laboratory with very limited experimentation capabilities.

Since there are no specific tasks here, experiments are carried out in a way that is necessary and interesting to the user. All that remains is to select the necessary substances, build an experimental setup using the proposed virtual equipment and start the reaction. It is very convenient that the resulting substance can be added to the collection of reagents for use in subsequent experiments.

In general, it turned out to be an interesting and useful resource, characterized by high flexibility of use. If we take into account the presence of an almost complete Russian translation of the program, then the IrYdium Chemistry Lab can become a very useful tool for mastering basic chemical knowledge.

IrYdium Chemistry Lab
Grade: 5
Interface language: Russian English
Developer: The ChemCollective
Website: www.chemcollective.org/vlab/vlab.php

“Virtual laboratory” teachmen.ru

This is the second Russian project in our review. This resource specializes in physical phenomena. The scope of virtual laboratories is not limited only to the school curriculum. The online experiences they offer, developed by specialists from Chelyabinsk State University, are suitable not only for schoolchildren, but also for students. From a technical point of view, this resource is a combination of Flash and Java, so you will need to check for updates to the Java virtual machine on your computer in advance.

The tasks of the “Virtual Laboratory” project are different
higher difficulty

The design of the laboratories here is schematic and strict. It seems as if peculiar animated pictures from a textbook are appearing. This is emphasized by the availability of materials intended to accompany training sessions. The main emphasis in such experiments is on performing specific tasks and testing the user's knowledge.

The project catalog includes a dozen main thematic sections - from mechanics to atomic and nuclear physics. Each of them contains up to ten corresponding interactive virtual laboratories. Illustrated lecture notes are also offered, some with their own virtual experiments.

The experimenter's working environment is reproduced here quite carefully. The devices are demonstrated in the form of diagrams, it is proposed to build graphs and select answers from the available options. Experiments in the “Virtual Laboratory” are more complex than in VirtuLab. The resource collection includes experiments in atomic and nuclear physics, laser physics, as well as an “atom constructor” that offers to assemble an atom from various elementary particles. There are experiments on finding and neutralizing a radiation source, studying the properties of lasers. In addition, there are also “mechanical” laboratories aimed primarily at schoolchildren.

Online Labs in

In addition to large resources with dozens and hundreds of virtual experimental sites on the Internet, there are many small sites offering a number of interesting experiments on a certain, usually narrow topic.

A good starting point when looking for small virtual
laboratoriescapable of becoming a project Online Labs in

In such a situation, in order to find the necessary demonstrations, catalog projects that collect and systematize links to such sites will certainly be useful. The Online Labs in directory (onlinelabs.in) can be a good starting point. This resource collects and systematizes links to projects offering freely accessible online experiments and laboratories in various branches of science. For each science there is a corresponding section. The project's areas of interest are primarily physics, chemistry and biology. These sections are the largest and best updated. In addition, those devoted to anatomy, astronomy, geology and mathematics are gradually being filled out. Each section contains links to relevant Internet resources with a brief summary in English describing the purpose of a particular laboratory.

“Virtual laboratory” teachmen.ru
Grade: 3
Language: Russian
Developer: Chelyabinsk State University
Website:

Global education and the scientific process have been changing so clearly in recent years, but for some reason they talk less about breakthrough innovations and the opportunities they open up, and more about local exam scandals. Meanwhile, the essence of the educational process is beautifully reflected by the English proverb “You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.”

Modern education essentially lives a double life. In his official life there is a program, regulations, exams, a “senseless and merciless” battle over the composition of subjects in the school course, the vector of the official position and the quality of education. And in his real life, as a rule, everything that modern education represents is concentrated: digitalization, eLearning, Mobile Learning, training through Coursera, UoPeople and other online institutions, webinars, virtual laboratories, etc. All this for now has not become part of the generally accepted global educational paradigm, but locally the digitalization of education and research work is already happening.

MOOC training (Massive Open Online Courses, mass lectures from open sources) is excellent for transferring ideas, formulas and other theoretical knowledge in lessons and lectures. But to fully master many disciplines, practical training is also needed - digital learning “felt” this evolutionary need and created a new “form of life” - virtual laboratories, their own for school and university education.

Known problem with eLearning: mostly theoretical subjects are taught. Perhaps the next stage in the development of online education will be to cover practical areas. And this will happen in two directions: the first is the contractual delegation of practice to physically existing universities (in the case of medicine, for example), and the second is the development of virtual laboratories in different languages.

Why do we need virtual laboratories, or virtuallabs?

• To prepare for real laboratory work.
• For school classes, if appropriate conditions, materials, reagents and equipment are not available.
• For distance learning.
• For independent study of disciplines as an adult or together with children, since many adults, for one reason or another, feel the need to “remember” what was never learned or understood at school.
• For scientific work.
• For higher education with an important practical component.

Types of virtuallabs. Virtual laboratories can be two-dimensional or 3D; simplest for elementary school students and complex, practical for middle and high school students, students and teachers. Their own virtuallabs are developed for different disciplines. Most often these are physics and chemistry, but there are also quite original ones, for example, virtuallab for ecologists.

Particularly serious universities have their own virtual laboratories, for example, the Samara State Aerospace University named after Academician S.P. Korolev and the Berlin Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG). Let us remember that Max Planck is a German theoretical physicist, the founder of quantum physics. The institute's virtual laboratory even has an official website. You can watch the presentation using this link The Virtual Laboratory: Tools for Research on the History of Experimentalization. The online laboratory is a platform where historians publish and discuss their research on the topic of experimentation in various fields of science (from physics to medicine), art, architecture, media and technology. It also contains illustrations and texts on various aspects of experimental activities: instruments, progress of experiments, films, photos of scientists, etc. Students can create their own account in this virtuallab and add scientific works for discussion.

Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Virtulab portal

Unfortunately, the choice of Russian-language virtuallabs is still small, but it’s a matter of time. The spread of eLearning among pupils and students, the massive penetration of digitalization into educational institutions will one way or another create demand, and then they will begin to massively develop beautiful modern virtual labs in various disciplines. Fortunately, there is already a fairly developed specialized portal dedicated to virtual laboratories - Virtulab.Net. It offers quite nice solutions and covers four disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology and ecology.

Virtual laboratory 3D for physics Virtulab .Net

Virtual engineering practice

Virtulab.Net does not yet list engineering among its specializations, but reports that the physics virtual labs hosted there can also be useful in distance engineering education. After all, for example, to build mathematical models, a deep understanding of the physical nature of modeling objects is necessary. In general, engineering virtuallabs have enormous potential. Engineering education is largely practice-oriented, but such virtual laboratories are still rarely used in universities due to the fact that the market for digital education in the engineering field is underdeveloped.

Problem-oriented educational complexes of the CADIS system (SSAU). To strengthen the training of technical specialists, Samara Aerospace University named after Korolev has developed its own engineering virtuallab. The Center for New Information Technologies (CNIT) of SSAU has created “Problem-oriented educational complexes of the CADIS system.” The abbreviation CADIS stands for “system of Complexes of Automated Teaching Tools”. These are special classrooms where virtual laboratory workshops are held on strength of materials, structural mechanics, optimization methods and geometric modeling, aircraft design, materials science and heat treatment and other technical disciplines. Some of these workshops are freely available on the server of the Central Scientific Research Institute of SSAU. Virtual classrooms contain descriptions of technical objects with photographs, diagrams, links, drawings, video, audio and flash animations with a magnifying glass to examine the small details of a virtual unit. There is also the possibility of self-monitoring and training. This is what the CADIS virtual system complexes are:

• Beam - a complex for analyzing and constructing diagrams of beams in the course of strength of materials (mechanical engineering, construction).
• Structure - a complex of methods for designing power circuits of mechanical structures (mechanical engineering, construction).
• Optimization - a complex on mathematical methods of optimization (courses on CAD in mechanical engineering, construction).
• Spline is a complex on interpolation and approximation methods in geometric modeling (CAD courses).
• I-beam - a complex for studying the patterns of force work of thin-walled structures (mechanical engineering, construction).

• Chemist - a set of complexes in chemistry (for high school, specialized lyceums, preparatory courses for universities).
• Organic - complexes in organic chemistry (for universities).
• Polymer - complexes on the chemistry of high-molecular compounds (for universities).
• Constructor of Molecules - simulator program “Constructor of molecules”.
• Mathematics - a complex of elementary mathematics (for university applicants).
• Physical education is a complex to support theoretical courses in physical education.
• Metallurgist - a complex of metallurgy and heat treatment (for universities and technical schools).
• Zubrol - a complex on the theory of mechanisms and machine parts (for universities and technical schools).

Virtual instruments on Zapisnyh.Narod.Ru. The website Zapisnyh.Narod.Ru will be very useful in engineering education, where you can download virtual instruments on a Sound Card for free, which open up wide opportunities for creating equipment. They will certainly be of interest to teachers and will be useful in lectures, in scientific work and in laboratory workshops in natural and technical disciplines. The range of virtual instruments posted on the site is impressive:

• combined low-frequency generator;
• two-phase low-frequency generator;
• oscilloscope recorder;
• oscilloscope;
• frequency meter;
• AC characterograph;
• technographer;
• electric meter;
• R, C, L meter;
• home electrocardiograph;
• capacitance and ESR estimator;
• chromatographic systems KhromProtsessor-7-7M-8;
• device for checking and diagnosing faults of quartz watches, etc.

One of the virtual engineering instruments from the site Zapisnyh.Narod.Ru

Physics virtuallabs

Ecological virtuallab on Virtulab .Net. The environmental laboratory of the portal addresses both general issues of the development of the Earth and individual laws.

1

A methodology for creating laboratory work in chemistry using virtual laboratories is described. The creation of a virtual laboratory work consists of the stages of setting the goals of laboratory work, choosing a virtual laboratory, identifying the capabilities of a virtual simulator, adjusting goals, determining content and didactic tasks, drawing up a script, testing, correcting the script, assessing and analyzing the reliability of the process and the result of the virtual experiment in comparison with full-scale, drawing up methodological recommendations. A model of the methodology for creating virtual laboratory work in chemistry is presented. The conceptual and terminological apparatus in the field of research has been clarified: definitions of virtual laboratory work in chemistry, virtual chemical laboratory, and virtual chemical experiment are given. The methods of using virtual laboratory work in chemistry when studying at a university are shown: when studying new material, when consolidating knowledge, when preparing for full-scale laboratory work both in the classroom and in extracurricular independent activities.

chemistry training

virtual laboratories

virtual experiment

1. Belokhvostov A. A., Arshansky E. Ya. Electronic means of teaching chemistry; development and methods of use. – Minsk: Aversev, 2012. – 206 p.

2. Gavronskaya Yu. Yu., Alekseev V. V. Virtual laboratory work in interactive teaching of physical chemistry // News of the Russian State Pedagogical University. A.I. Herzen. – 2014. – No. 168. – P.79–84.

3. GOST 15971–90. Information processing systems. Terms and Definitions. - Instead of GOST 15971-84; input 01/01/1992. - M.: Publishing house of standards, 1991. – 12 p.

4. Morozov, M. N. Development of a virtual chemical laboratory for school education // Educational technologies and society. – 2004. – T 7, No. 3. – P 155-164.

5. Pak, M. S. Theory and methodology of teaching chemistry: a textbook for universities. – St. Petersburg: Publishing house of the Russian State Pedagogical University named after. A.I. Herzen, 2015. – 306 p.

6. Federal state educational standard of higher professional education in the field of training 050100 Pedagogical education (qualification (degree) “bachelor”) (approved by Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation of December 22, 2009 No. 788) (as amended on May 31, 2011 .) [Electronic resource]. - URL: http://fgosvo.ru/uploadfiles/fgos/5/20111207163943.pdf (access date: 10/03/15).

7. Virtual Lab / ChemCollective. Online Resources for Teaching and Learning Chemistry [Electronic resource]. - URL: http://chemcollective.org/activities/vlab?lang=ru (access date: 10/03/15).

Virtual chemical laboratories, virtual experiment, virtual laboratory work in chemistry are a promising area in chemical education, naturally attracting the attention of students and teachers. The relevance of introducing virtual laboratories into educational practice is determined, firstly, by the information challenges of the time, and secondly, by regulatory requirements for the organization of training, that is, educational standards. In order to implement the competency-based approach, the current Federal State Educational Standards of higher education provide for the widespread use in the educational process of active and interactive forms of conducting classes, including computer simulations, in combination with extracurricular work in order to form and develop students’ professional skills.

In this area, in terms of prevalence and demand, the leader is “Chemistry 8-11 grades - Virtual Laboratory” of MarSTU, intended for schoolchildren and applicants; interactive practical works and experiments in chemistry VirtuLab (http://www.virtulab.net/) are also well known. At the level of higher education, Russian-language resources on the educational market include ENK virtual chemical laboratories, universities’ own (and, as a rule, closed) developments, and a number of resources in foreign languages. Descriptions of available virtual laboratories in chemistry have been given more than once, and their list will certainly be expanded. Virtual laboratories confidently take their place in the practice of teaching chemistry and chemical disciplines, at the same time, the theoretical and methodological foundations of their use and the creation of virtual laboratory work based on them are just beginning to take shape. Even the term “virtual laboratory work in chemistry” has not yet received a substantiated definition that accurately denotes the relationship with other concepts, including the concept of a virtual laboratory in teaching chemistry and a virtual chemical experiment.

To clarify the conceptual and terminological apparatus, we use the term “chemical experiment” as a starting point, used in the scientific field of theory and teaching methods. A chemical experiment is a specific means of teaching chemistry, serving as a source and the most important method of knowledge; it introduces students not only to objects and phenomena, but also to the methods of chemical science. In the process of a chemical experiment, students acquire the ability to observe, analyze, draw conclusions, and handle equipment and reagents. There are: demonstration and student/student experiment; experiments (help to study individual aspects of a chemical object), laboratory work (a set of laboratory experiments allows one to study many aspects of chemical objects and processes), practical exercises, laboratory workshop; home experiment, research experiment, etc. A chemical experiment can be full-scale, mental and virtual. “Virtual” means “possible without physical embodiment”; virtual reality - imitation of a real situation using computer devices; used primarily for educational purposes; in this regard, a virtual experiment is sometimes called a simulation or computer experiment. According to the current GOST, “virtual” is a definition that characterizes a process or device in an information processing system that seems to really exist, since all its functions are implemented by some other means; widely used in connection with the use of telecommunications. Thus, a virtual chemical experiment is a type of educational experiment in chemistry; its main difference from the full-scale one is the fact that the means of demonstrating or modeling chemical processes and phenomena is computer technology; when performing it, the student operates with images of substances and equipment components that reproduce the appearance and functions of real objects, that is, he uses a virtual laboratory. We understand a virtual laboratory in teaching chemistry as a computer simulation of an educational chemical laboratory that implements its main function - conducting a chemical experiment for educational purposes. Technically, the functioning of the virtual laboratory is ensured by computer hardware and software, a didactically - substantively and methodologically justified system of assumptions about the course of the chemical process being studied or the manifestations of the properties of a chemical object, on the basis of which one of the possible options for the response of the virtual laboratory to the user’s actions is developed. The virtual laboratory acts as an element of a high-tech information educational environment, being a means of creating and performing a virtual experiment. Virtual laboratory work in chemistry is a virtual chemical experiment in the form of a set of experiments united by the common goal of studying a chemical object or process.

Let's consider the methodology for creating a virtual laboratory work in chemistry (its model is shown in Figure 1) using a specific example of laboratory work on the topic “Solutions”.

Rice. 1. Model of the methodology for creating virtual laboratory work in chemistry

The creation of a virtual laboratory work consists of the stages of setting the goals of laboratory work, choosing a virtual laboratory, identifying the capabilities of a virtual simulator, adjusting goals, defining meaningful and didactic tasks, drawing up a scenario, testing, assessing and analyzing the reliability of the process and the result of the virtual experiment in comparison with the real one, correction scenario and preparation of methodological recommendations.

The goal-setting stage involves the process of selecting the goals of the planned laboratory work with establishing the limits of permissible deviations to achieve an educational result by the most effective and acceptable means, taking into account material, technical, time, human resources, as well as the personal and age characteristics of students. In our example, the goal was to prepare solutions and study their properties; The work is designed for independent extracurricular educational activities of students. The topic of solutions is covered in most university chemistry courses; in addition, the skills of preparing and working with solutions are in demand in everyday life and in almost any professional activity. Therefore, the goals of the work included: consolidation of the skills to calculate the molar and percentage concentration of a solution, the required amount of substance and solvent to prepare a solution of a given concentration; development of the algorithm and technique of operations for preparing solutions (weighing substances, measuring volume, etc.); study of phenomena occurring during dissolution - release or absorption of heat, dissociation, change in electrical conductivity, change in pH of the medium, etc.

Stage of choosing a virtual laboratory. The choice of a virtual laboratory is determined by a number of circumstances: the mode of access to the resource, the financial conditions for its use, the language and complexity of the interface, and of course, the content, that is, the capabilities that this laboratory provides or does not provide to the user to achieve the goals of the planned laboratory work. We focused on laboratories with open free access, for work with which computer skills at the user level would be sufficient, initially abandoning laboratories with a low degree of interactivity, that is, allowing only options for passive observation of chemical experience. Having studied several projects, both multidisciplinary and thematic, we came to the conclusion that none of the laboratories known to us fully meets the requirements, namely: allowing the student to prepare a solution of a given concentration using pre-calculated amounts of solute and solvent by carrying out weighing operations , measuring volume, dissolution, making sure the preparation is correct, and also observing the processes accompanying dissolution. Nevertheless, we settled on the virtual laboratory IrYdiumChemistryLab, the advantage of which is the ability to intervene in the program and design your own virtual experiment.

Identification of the capabilities of the virtual simulator of the selected laboratory showed the following. Regarding the set of reagents, there are solutions of various concentrations (19 MNaOH, 15 MHClO4 and others), water as the most important solvent, but practically no solids; however, the Authoring Tool application allows you to introduce additional reagents into the laboratory using the thermodynamic characteristics of the substances. The equipment includes a set of measuring glassware of varying degrees of accuracy (cylinders, pipettes, burettes), analytical balances, pH meter, temperature sensor, heating element, as well as an applet demonstrating the concentration of particles in the solution. The ability to study such characteristics of the solution as electrical conductivity, viscosity, and surface tension is not provided. Processes in a virtual laboratory take place in a very short time, which limits the study of the speed of chemical processes. Based on the capabilities of the virtual simulator, the goals were corrected; in particular, the study of the electrical conductivity of solutions was excluded, but the study of the effect of temperature on the solubility of substances was added. When determining the goals of laboratory work, we proceeded from the expected results: students should develop practical skills in preparing solutions, including mastering the algorithms of individual operations, they should come to conclusions about the change in the number of particles in a solution during the dissociation of strong and weak electrolytes, about the ratio of the number of anions and cations in the case of dissolution of unsymmetrical electrolytes, about the causes of thermal effects during dissolution.

We highlight the stage of determining the tasks of the laboratory work being created as an important element of the process of designing students' activities; here it is necessary to plan what manipulations students will have to perform within the framework of this laboratory work and what to observe (meaningful tasks), and what conclusions and on what basis they should come after completing it (didactic tasks), what skills to acquire. For example, master the algorithm of actions when preparing a given volume of solution from a weighed portion: calculate the mass of the substance, weigh it, measure the volume of liquid / bring it to the required volume; master the techniques of working with analytical balances and measuring utensils; observe how the concentrations of particles (molecules, ions) in solution relate to the dissolution of electrolytes and non-electrolytes, symmetrical and asymmetrical electrolytes, strong and weak electrolytes, draw conclusions about solubility, thermal effects during dissolution, and so on.

The next step in creating laboratory work is creating a scenario, that is, a detailed description of each experience separately and determining the place and role of this experience in laboratory work, taking into account what problems it will contribute to, and how to work to achieve the goals of laboratory work as a whole. In practice, drafting a scenario takes place simultaneously with testing, that is, trial execution of experiments that help clarify and detail the scenario. The scenario reflects every action and reaction of the virtual laboratory to it. The scenario is based on tasks like “Prepare 49 g of a 0.4% CuSO4 solution” or “Prepare 35 ml of a 0.1 mol/l CuSO4 solution from its crystalline hydrate (CuSO4∙5H2O).” When drawing up a task, the availability of suitable reagents and equipment in the virtual laboratory and the technical feasibility of completing such a task are taken into account. In our example, the scenario, in addition to the calculation side, also included a number of actions and techniques that simulate the preparation of a solution in a real laboratory. For example, when weighing, the dry substance must not be placed directly on the weighing pan, but a special container must be used; use the tare function; As in reality, the substance should be added to the scales in small portions; a possible accidental excess of the calculated mass will result in the operation having to be started again. The selection of chemical glassware of a suitable volume, accurate measurement of the volume of liquid “along the lower meniscus” and the use of other specific techniques are provided. After preparation, the properties of the resulting solution (molar concentration of ions, pH) are reflected in the applets of the virtual laboratory, which allows you to check the correctness of the task. By performing a series of experiments, students will receive data on the basis of which they will be able to draw conclusions about the concentration of ions in solutions of strong and weak electrolytes, the pH of solutions of hydrolyzed substances, or the dependence of the thermal effect of dissolution on the amount of solvent and the nature of the substance, etc.

As an example, consider the study of thermal effects during the dissolution of substances. The scenario involves experiments on the dissolution of dry salts (NaCl, KCl, NaNO 3, CuSO 4, K 2 Cr 2 O 7, KClO 3, Ce 2 (SO 4) 3). Based on the change in solution temperature, students should infer the possibility of both endothermic and exothermic effects of dissolution. The formulation of tasks in each case may vary and depends on the type of experiment - research or illustrative. For example, you can limit yourself to the conclusion about the presence of such effects, or include in the scenario the preparation of solutions of salts with different masses of the solute with the same mass of the solvent (prepare solutions containing 50 g of the substance in 100 g of water; 10 g of the substance in 100 g of water), and vice versa , experiments with a constant amount of solute and a varying mass of solvent; preparing solutions from anhydrous salts and their crystalline hydrates and monitoring temperature changes during their dissolution. When performing such experiments, students must answer the questions “How do temperature changes differ when equal amounts of anhydrous salts and their crystalline hydrates are dissolved? Why does the dissolution of anhydrous salts occur with the release of more heat than in the case of crystalline hydrates?” and draw a conclusion about what influences the sign of the thermal effect of dissolution. Depending on the goals and objectives of the work, the scenario will include several experiments or several series of experiments, it should be borne in mind that in the virtual space everything is done much faster than in a real laboratory, and does not take as much time as it might seem at first sight.

During the testing process, it is necessary to evaluate and analyze the reliability of the process and result of the virtual experiment in comparison with the real one, that is, make sure that the modeling and generated results of the virtual experiment do not contradict reality, that is, they will not mislead the user.

Methodological recommendations are based on a compiled and tested scenario, but we should not forget that they are addressed to students, and in addition to clear instructions and tasks, they must contain a description of the expected results associated with the goals, have references to theoretical material and examples.

The result of creating virtual laboratory work is its implementation in the learning process, leading to an increase in the quality of knowledge acquisition and mastery of relevant competencies. There are several methods for “embedding” virtual laboratory work in chemistry into the educational process of a university. When studying new material for its better understanding and mastery, in our opinion, it is advisable to conduct short virtual laboratory work to update knowledge or to demonstrate the phenomena being studied, which creates objective conditions to implement active and interactive forms of learning, which is required by the current educational standard. In this case, virtual laboratory work can replace a traditional demonstration experiment. In addition, we are considering the possibilities of using virtual laboratory work to consolidate knowledge and skills both in class and in extracurricular independent activities. Another option for using virtual laboratory work in the process of teaching chemistry is preparing students to perform full-scale laboratory work. By performing correctly composed virtual laboratory work in chemistry, students, firstly, practice the skills of solving calculation problems on this topic, secondly, consolidate the algorithm and technique for performing a chemical experiment, thirdly, learn the laws of the flow of chemical processes with active participation in the process training.

The proposed methodology for creating virtual laboratory work in chemistry equips teachers with scientifically based tools for conducting classes in chemistry and chemical disciplines in an interactive form in combination with extracurricular work in order to form and develop students’ professional skills.

Reviewers:

Rogovaya O. G., Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Chemical and Environmental Education of the Russian State Pedagogical University named after A.I. Herzen, St. Petersburg;

Piotrovskaya K.R., Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Professor of the Department of Methods of Teaching Mathematics and Informatics of the Russian State Pedagogical University named after A.I. Herzen, St. Petersburg.

Bibliographic link

Gavronskaya Yu.Yu., Oksenchuk V.V. METHODOLOGY FOR CREATION OF VIRTUAL LABORATORY WORKS IN CHEMISTRY // Modern problems of science and education. – 2015. – No. 2-2.;
URL: http://science-education.ru/ru/article/view?id=22290 (access date: 02/01/2020). We bring to your attention magazines published by the publishing house "Academy of Natural Sciences"

In accordance with the Federal State Educational Standards of Higher Professional Education in the areas of study implemented at the Faculty of Chemistry of the Russian State Pedagogical University named after. A.I. Herzen, the organization of the educational process should include the use of active and interactive forms of conducting classes, including computer simulations. Classes conducted in these forms must account for at least 30 percent of classroom time.

Interpreting active and interactive forms of conducting classes in terms of including students in intensive direct or indirect educational interaction, it should be recognized that computer training programs based on the principles of technologization, innovation, individualization, differentiation, integration open up new opportunities in organizing the interaction of subjects of learning, content and the nature of their activities. In particular, in teaching chemistry, such an approach helps to increase the level of assimilation of chemical information knowledge and the ability to apply it, the development of students’ abilities for integrative and creative thinking, and the formation of generalized skills to resolve problem situations.

The improvement of electronic learning tools has led to the modernization of the educational process as a whole: lectures are held in presentation mode, interactive methods of presenting educational material are used to conduct practical and seminar classes, tests and exams are taken using machine control.

When teaching chemistry, the most conservative part of the educational process remains the laboratory workshop, the feasibility of completely transferring it to e-learning mode is not yet entirely clear. However, special opportunities for implementing interactive learning here are created by a new type of educational chemical experiment - a virtual laboratory.

A virtual laboratory is understood as a computer program that allows you to simulate a chemical process on a computer, change the conditions and parameters of its implementation. When performing virtual laboratory work, the student operates with samples of substances and equipment components that reproduce the appearance and functions of real objects.

On the one hand, the positive aspects of a virtual laboratory are obvious - modern computer technologies in some cases make it possible to move away from the actual conduct of chemical processes without losing the quality of the information received. A special need for conducting virtual laboratory work arises, first of all, during correspondence and distance learning, as well as when students are working off missed classes, lack of complex equipment and expensive or inaccessible reagents. In addition, for some work, the possibilities of computerized laboratory practical work are wider than traditional ones. Thus, students have the opportunity to study reactions with substances prohibited for use in the educational process, there are no time restrictions, the student can do the work (or prepare for it) outside of class time, and repeat it many times.

Despite the advantages and obvious need for educational practice in virtual laboratories, their number and experience of using them in interactive and distance learning in chemical disciplines, for example, physical chemistry, in foreign and domestic practice is not so great. Virtual chemistry laboratories are mainly created for secondary general education (“Virtual Chemistry Laboratory for ISO Grades 8-11”). As for higher education, there is a limited number of virtual chemical laboratories mainly in inorganic, general and organic chemistry for non-chemical areas/training profiles, almost all in English, in some cases registration and payment for using the full version are required: Chemlab, Crocodile Chemistry 605, and the educational product “Yenka”, adapted for Russian schools, created on its basis, Virtual Chemistry Laboratory, Dartmouth ChemLab - an interactive guide to performing laboratory work in general chemistry, which is not actually a virtual laboratory), collections of visualizations and computer simulations Chemistry Experiment Simulations and Virtlab: A Virtual Laboratory and several others.

Special virtual laboratories for physical chemistry are not represented at all on the educational product market. Of course, universities, whenever possible, create virtual laboratory work in physical chemistry, taking into account their specifics, most often for working with their own students. For example, the software product “Module of Applied Chemistry” (MPH), developed at the department of IU-6 MSTU. N.E. Bauman. In accordance with the curriculum of the discipline “Physical Chemistry”, it is expected to perform a number of laboratory works, including on the topics “Thermochemistry”, “Phase equilibria”, “Surface phenomena”.

Thanks to the MPH, it has become possible to conduct laboratory work on these topics in real time (Real Time), implementing a mixed model of distance learning. Another example is virtual laboratory work at the Kemerovo Institute of Food Technologies.

The level of such developments is very diverse from both technical and methodological points of view, and their use is limited. Independent design and implementation of a narrowly subject-specific information educational environment is a very complex task, requiring a special operating base, a team of programmers, teachers and chemists, and large time and financial costs. We believe that it would be more appropriate to adapt or create, within the existing virtual laboratory, our own virtual laboratory work that meets the specifics of this OOP and the discipline program. In particular, we used the virtual laboratory of The ChemCollective project to create our own virtual laboratory works in physical chemistry.

IrYdium Chemistry Lab, the advantages of which were a satisfactory set of virtual reagents and physical and chemical instruments, a partially Russified user-friendly interface, a built-in task development program, and free use allowed by developers.

Created by us on the basis of IrYdium Chemistry Lab and tested in a laboratory workshop on physical chemistry at the Russian State Pedagogical University named after. A.I. Herzen virtual laboratory works are simulations of experimental work of a real laboratory workshop on the topic “Thermochemistry”: “Determination of the heat of dissolution of salt”, “Determination of the thermal effect of the formation of crystalline hydrate from anhydrous salt and water”, “Determination of the heat of neutralization of a strong acid by a strong base”, the implementation of which is provided working programs of the academic discipline “Physical Chemistry”. Each work includes a wide variety of tasks (substances under study, their mass/volume) and is provided with methodological instructions for students and teachers. The progress of virtual laboratory work is as close as possible to conducting a real chemical experiment; Using a computer program, the student performs certain actions that he has thought out in accordance with a specific task: selects reagents, weighs, measures volumes, records temperature changes, makes observations (in the form of virtual images), processes, summarizes and analyzes the experimental results in a report.

Despite the described advantages, with the development of computer teaching technologies, the question of the need to create virtual laboratory work and the partial or complete transfer of workshops from laboratories to computer classes is being discussed more and more.

At the same time, some authors explain the need for such a transition by the high cost of laboratory equipment, others by the lack of time resources or the unification of educational programs in accordance with the Bologna Declaration, etc. However, the main disadvantage of a virtual laboratory is the lack of direct contact between the student and the object of research, instruments and equipment.

Like most of our colleagues, we believe that the object of study of chemistry is a substance that has a set of characteristics and properties that not even the most advanced computer model can reproduce. The approach to the problem of creating virtual laboratory work and their implementation in the educational process must take into account the specifics of the chemical discipline in order to prevent the production of an army of “virtual” specialists who have experience working only with idealized models, and not with real objects and phenomena, while the level Their responsibility when working in production is so great that it determines not only environmental safety, but also the very existence of the surrounding world.

The experience of using virtual laboratory work in a chemistry workshop has shown that a combination of a virtual and a real experiment is preferable, in which a computer model of the process being studied has an auxiliary function of preparing the student for actions with real objects. A virtual laboratory allows you to work out a methodology for studying a real process, anticipate possible errors in setting up and conducting an experiment, speed up mathematical processing and interpretation of the data obtained, and draw up a report. The teacher has a real opportunity to set students the task of determining the optimal conditions of the experiment. The solution to this problem can be implemented in a virtual chemical experiment after studying the properties of the model, which allows students to reasonably justify the conditions for conducting a real experiment. This is especially true in the case of working with hazardous chemical objects (for example, concentrated acids and alkalis, flammable or toxic substances), then virtual laboratories should be used in the first stages, and only after obtaining the required skills, proceed, if necessary, to working with real objects.

There is no doubt that the virtual laboratory work and other computer simulations we offer cannot and should not replace a real chemical experiment, however, there are a number of situations when the use of a virtual laboratory is the preferred or only possible way of learning. First of all, this is distance learning, when the student is not physically present in the laboratory, for example, during distance learning or full-time due to illness or due to a foreign internship. In addition, there is a need to make up missed classes, the need for preparation/training before performing actual laboratory work, etc. With interactive forms of conducting classes, virtual laboratory work allows for a visual and reliable computer simulation of a physical and chemical process, causing and observing the system’s response to external influences, including the maximum number of students in the classroom in productive educational interaction.

Thus, from our point of view, active and interactive forms of chemistry classes should contain both real experiments on modern equipment and virtual laboratory work on the study of chemical processes in an optimal, scientifically based proportion, which will allow for the dynamic development of the structure and methodology of teaching chemistry based on the most modern achievements of science, technology and methods of knowledge. cooperation training assault virtual