Use of Adaptable Simulation-based Virtual Laboratories for Teaching Alternative Energy and Energy Conservation in Engineering & Technology Programs

The paper presents multilayered highly interactive simulation-based integrated and adjustable virtual laboratories for engineering and technology education focusing on alternative energy and energy conservation courses. These labs are designed to enhance the understanding of technical concepts and underlying fundamental principles, as well as to help students master certain performance based skills in an online environment. The simulations and labs also help students explore the economic aspects of using alternative energy devices. The virtual labs can be used in conjunction with the related hands-on labs to form the hybrid laboratories. Virtual labs contain expandable sets of virtual experiments (VE), as well as relevant learning resources and assessment activities. Each VE focuses on a particular task and comprises such components as highly interactive main and auxiliary Java of Flash simulations, specific learning objectives, experiment descriptions, step-by step instruction for students, worksheet, built-in lessons and technical manuals to facilitate “just-in-time” learning, embedded assessment and other resources. An easy-to-use tool that enables instructors with no-programming experience to produce appealing and pedagogically sound interactive virtual activities is available as well. An example of a multilayered virtual lab on a solar water heating system is shown in Figure 1 Realistic simulations visualize processes occurring in the devices and enable students to observe the physical processes at different levels (from macroscopic to subatomic), analyze constraints between physical parameters, compare actual and virtual data, and much more. The simulation and virtual experiment materials presented in this paper have been developed with the partial support from the NSF.