Virtual ChemLab

Beyond LabzVirtual Labs, Real Science

Built over a Science SDK developed through 20 years of research at BYU, Beyond Labz creates open-ended virtual lab experiences that provide students with opportunities to experiment, practice, fail, discover and learn without the limitations, expense and safety constraints of an actual laboratory.

Virtual ChemLab has five individual lab benches:

Inorganic

The lab includes 26 cations that can be added to test tubes in any combination, 11 reagents that can be added to the test tubes in any sequence and any number of times, lab manipulations, a lab book to record results, and a stockroom to create known mixtures, generate practice unknowns, or retrieve instructor assigned unknowns. The simulation uses over 2,500 photos and 220 videos to show reactions and flame tests. There are in excess of 10^16 possible outcomes for these simulations.

Quantum

The lab allows students to explore and understand the foundational experiments that led to the development of atomic theory. There is an optics table on which you place a source, sample, modifier, and detector combination to perform experiments. The devices are located in the stockroom and are taken out to place on the optics table. Students probe samples (e.g., a gas, metal foil, two-slit screen, etc.) with a source (e.g., a laser, electron gun, alpha-particle source, etc.) and detect the outcome with a specific detector (e.g., a phosphor screen, spectrometer, etc.). Heat, electric fields, or magnetic fields can also be applied.

Gas Properties

The lab contains four experiments, each has one dependent and three independent variables: pressure §, temperature (T), volume (V), and the number of moles (n). The experiments include an ideal gas; a van der Waals gas with parameters that can be changed to represent any real gas; real gases including N2, CO2, CH4, H2O, NH3, and He; and eight ideal gases with different molecular weights that can be added to the experiments to form gas mixtures.

Titrations

The lab simulates precise, quantitative titrations involving acid-base and electrochemical reactions. There are a 50 mL buret, 5, 10, and 25 mL pipets, graduated cylinders, beakers, a stir plate, a set of 8 acid-base indicators, a pH meter/voltmeter, a conductivity meter, and an analytical balance to weigh solids. Perform acid-base titrations on any combination of mono-, di-, and tri-protic acids and mono-, di-, and tri-basic bases. Monitor pH using a pH meter, an indicator, and a conductivity meter as a function of volume, and save data to an e-lab book for analysis. There is a smaller set of potentiometric titrations. Realistic results include systematic and random errors in mass and volume measurements: mass weighing buoyancy errors, glassware volumetric errors, and pH/voltmeter and conductivity meter output errors

Calorimetry

There is a classic “coffee cup”, a dewar flask, and a bomb calorimeter. The calorimetric method is based on measuring the temperature change associated with the different thermodynamic processes. Students can choose organic materials to measure the heats of combustion; salts to measure the heats of solution; acids, bases, oxidants, and reductants for heats of reaction; metals and alloys for heat capacity measurements; and ice for a melting process. Temperature versus time data can be graphed and saved to an e-lab book for analysis.

This app is designed for use on Chromebooks. For the best experience, a mouse will be required.