Towards Model-Based Virtual Wet Lab Experiments

Often virtual wet lab experiments are not exactly experimental. They simply require a series of mouse clicks to be performed in the exact order intended by the programmer. While this does not sound like fun for the students, too open activities are not helpful either. Instead students should be allowed to vary their learning path wherever possible, mimicking a ´real´ experiment. This paper outlines a model-based approach which can provide this flexibility while reducing programming efforts for new virtual wet lab experiments. Lab equipment, chemicals, and lab activities are to be modeled beforehand in order to be made available in an ´experiment construction kit´ for teachers and students.