iLabRS: A remote laboratory for science & technology in secondary education

Abstract

This communication describes the second wave of improvements of the remote laboratory for secondary education iLabRS. The laboratory is intended to provide experimental activities to high school students using the University facilities. A secondary goal is to promote the interaction between both education levels. The new features include the control software which dynamically manages the LabView virtual instruments and remote panels and which assigns resources to up to 20 simultaneous users of the same experiment. Also new experiments have been added, including the measurement of light sources efficiency and spectrum, a robotic arm or the control of DC motors. An evaluation campaign has been carried out with students from 15 high schools. Also a training course, followed by 35 high school and professional training teachers has been performed.Index Terms-Remote laboratory, secondary education, outreach INTRODUCTIONAlmost al l rem ote 1 aboratories whi ch are described in the litera ture [1 -3 ] are designed to be u sed i n th e University en vironment. Pr imary and secondary school students and teachers have access to a vast am ount of internet-based resources, but almost all of them are virtual demonstrators, which are usually based on Ja va applets or Flash animations.The remote laboratory described in this communication was in itially designed to fulfill the needs of an ad vanced course i n EI ectronics Engi neering. However, i twas adapted t 0 pr ovide expe rim ental rem ote activities t 0 Secondary School st udents an d several experiments were developed sp ecifically to fit in to th at field . It has b een possible thanks to the co llaboration bet ween Telecom BC N, the Electrical Engineer ing sch 001 of Tech nical University 0 fCatalo nia (UPC) an d t he Edu cation Department, which al lowed a secondary school professor to spend a ful l sabbatical year in the development of bot h technical and didactical aspect s of the remote laboratory. In a previous com munication, we described t he pi lot experience that was carri ed out in 2008 wi th seven Hi gh Schools, involving around 100 students [4].A secon d i mpulse has bee n gi ven tot his project , increasing t he number of exp eriments repl ica, creat ing a new webpage and access control software and also adding new experiments. A second evaluation campaign has been carried out, with 15 high schools. Also a short course for facuIties h as been p erformed. It was fo 1I0wed by 35 teachers. Figure 3. A main board with the experiment board 2 connected on its top. It implements a configurable linear power supply.IT. THE REMOTE LABORATORYiLabRS has been built over the Teleco m BC N modular platform for instrumentation and sens ors. It is based on a main board (16 xl0 cm ) whi ch im plements a cust om acquisition sy stem arou nd an Ethernet-capable microcontroller. The speci fic experim ent circuit boards (lOxlO cm ) a re connected to the corresponding m ain board in a sandwich structure (figure I).The main board has a sing Ie 5 V in put pow er su pply and provides ...

Remote Laboratory Offered as Hardware-as-a-Service Infrastructure

“…Over the years, a variety of solutions has emerged which usually delivers a web-based system with user interface that facilitates interaction with hardware, and in particular with microcontrollers [13][14][15]. Some of the remote laboratories are not exclusively dedicated to microcontrollers, but offer help in the investigation of physical phenomenons [16] or give the ability to control a robotic arm [17].…”