Functionality
Virtual Laboratory of Chemistry has: a way to visually conduct experiments with different substances, a model- and analysis-oriented view of the current reaction; an “assistant” to simplify the work with the program, valuable encyclopedic information regarding the elements; a glossary; self-test facilities; interactive lab exercises; a sophisticated unit converter; a lab log; a built-in calculator; an equation editor; a help file; an attractive interface and many other features. The program can also be updated over the Internet, which helps to constantly keep its database up-to-date. What’s more, teachers can manually add more substances and reactions and thus enrich the students’ experience.
Reactions
Reactions are performed in several easy steps: the user picks a container and puts it on the virtual worktable and then adds two substances into the container. The assistant will announce the result – whether the reaction went normally or there was some kind of a problem. A problem can often arise, for example, if both substances are metals or a burner is required for the reaction and none has been put on the worktable or there is no information about the reaction in the database. If there are no problems, the user can see the change and the result of the reaction in the container. The field under the assistant shows an equation of the reaction and sometimes a small animation showing how the atoms are grouped together. There is no limit to the number of containers that can be put on the worktable or the reactions to be performed. When the user has finished with the lab experiments, he can clean the worktable and start anew.
Information
The program has a way to modify the information about elements and reactions and so enrich the database. The login in the administrative panel requires an example password to protect students from accidentally deleting parts of the database in schools. On the first run of the program, a teacher can change the example password as it is initially recorded in the help file.
Tools & Applications
A chemistry project without the periodic table of elements is nothing. That is why we have one here. There are two variants of the table – normal and unfolded. They differ in nothing except the location of the elements. To satisfy the students’ curiosity, I’ve included information about every element – physical attributes, history, interesting facts, a photo of the element and others.
Apart from the periodic table of the elements, there are also several other reference tools included – the solubility table, Oxidizing and Relative activity of some of the substances.
When students first encounter with the chemical terminology, they find it hard to remember it without constantly using it. This will no longer be a problem as the program has a built-in glossary of the most widely used terminology. It’s a wonderful way to recollect the meaning of any unknown term at any time.
The students in the seventh grade learn about some of the most widely-spread elements, compounds and reactions but they also learn how to solve equations and different problems like the mass and so on. In this case they need to use different units and convert them. The project incorporates an extremely useful unit converter and it can convert all kinds of units. Another useful tool is the calculator which helps the students to calculate any sum they encounter with.
When conducting a laboratory experiments, students write down every important detail. This is why I created the lab log which does the writing down for the students. They can save the log about any experiment and review it afterwards.
The most interesting thing for some of the students and most of the teachers is the self-test feature of the program. There are several tests – the first is the standard one – several answers and only one of them is the right one. After the test is completed, a mark is generated depending on the number of the right answers. This is a good way for teachers to check their students’ knowledge. The questions in the test can be modified in the administrative panel. Another tool of examination is the equation editor. It can help the teacher to check the students’ skills of solving chemical equations. The last but not least important method for examination is using simple lab experiments. A reaction is visualized onscreen and the student is asked a question regarding the reaction. Seeing the changes on the screen, the student has to consider what he sees and answer correctly. In order to make the program more fun and pleasant to use, I’ve added the option to modify the colors and transparency attributes of some of the program’s elements. That way the students can change the appearance of the program to their own liking.
Besides all that functionality, there is also a complete help system in the project. Should there be any problems (which I highly doubt) the user can always look for help in the help system.