An essential goal for physics and optical science instructors is to encourage students to find excitement in their academics. Such motivation relies on realistic hands-on lab opportunities where students interact with physics-based phenomena. When in-person labs are limited or unavailable, virtual simulation and modeling tools provide a great alternative in delivering interactive experiences.
A virtual lab beginning with a perfectly aligned system misses a key teaching opportunity to show the student how an experiment is built. Failure-mode options introduce misalignment of the initial set-up to introduce realistic errors to an experiment. The failure-mode gives a more realistic sense to a virtual lab which will complement the classroom-based courses.
Physics and optical sciences virtual labs (Vlabs), including failure-mode options, are freely available and developed through a Python environment. All the lab scripts are open-source and accessible for any student or instructor through a standard editor (e.g., Microsoft Windows Notepad).
Vlabs Python codes (example Vlabs Python code shown in the figure above) can be freely acquired by emailing us. To access the various Vlabs codes or join our open-source educational outreach program contact Prof. Sukmock Lee (smlee@inha.ac.kr ) or Prof. Daewook Kim (dkim@optics.arizona.edu).
Sukmock Lee, Charlotte Guthery, and Daewook Kim