May 2008 — News
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Science Labs: Virtual Versus Simulated
- Virtual: not physically existing as such but made by software to appear to do so.
- Simulate: imitate or reproduce the appearance, character, or conditions of.
A simulation uses algorithms (including equations) to create apparent but unreal objects, data, and/or phenomena. These fail to duplicate the real-world aspect of the complexity and ambiguity of empirical work.
Not all simulations use computers. For example, a popular simulation used in many classrooms employs colored beads in hands-on mode. Students physically contact the beads and manipulate them. They stand in for DNA, which the students do not touch. This activity is not a hands-on experiment; it is a hands-on simulation.
Scientists do use simulations but as a means to test models or to suggest direction to their research. They do not take and analyze simulation data as though it were real. Pilots and surgeons use simulations in training, which has a very different purpose from scientific investigations.
Simulations may play an important role in the science classroom by allowing visualization of difficult concepts and exploration of scientific models, including their limitations. These are not science lab experiences, however.
A virtual experiment uses data mediated by a computer. These data may originate from simulations or from the material world. The former are virtual simulations and do not fit the definition of science laboratory experiences as described in America's Lab Report.
"Laboratory experiences provide opportunities for students to interact directly with the material world (or with data drawn from the material world), using the tools, data collection techniques, models, and theories of science" (National Research Council, 2005, p. 3).
The latter may be very valid and appropriate science investigations. Material-world virtual experiments available today fall into three categories.
Large Online Scientific Databases
Students use the Internet to acquire data from these databases, which they manipulate and analyze to make discoveries about the scientific area from which the data originate. Examples are genome databases and astronomical databases.
The major limitation of this mode of scientific investigation is that only a limited number of topics are accessible because of the limited number of large online scientific databases available to students. Additionally, students are not making their own measurements, except in rare cases, such as GalaxyZoo.org, an ongoing, open-participation astronomical database in which volunteers input data for scientific research.
