Virtual labs
Who this is for: pupils · Where: Labs in the sidebar.
What this page is for
Science experiments you carry out on screen — physics, chemistry, biology and astronomy. You handle the apparatus, take readings, and work out the answer.
How a lab runs
Most labs move through stages:
- Observe — set the apparatus up and watch what happens
- Measure — take a reading
- Calculate — work the answer out and type it in
- Predict — say what will happen if something changes
- Verify — change it and see whether you were right
- Apply — use the result on a real-world question
You can go back and forward through stages you have finished. A completed stage shows a summary rather than the controls, so you can re-read your working without redoing it.
The calculation steps are the graded part. Some formulas are given; others you are expected to know.
Working in a group
Your teacher may put you in a group. If so:
- everyone in the group gets the same variant — the same numbers
- you each still run your own bench and submit your own answers
It is a shared problem, not shared typing. Nobody can complete it for you.
Once you start, your group is fixed.
The timer
A lab set for the class has a shared deadline, shown as a countdown that turns red in the last minute.
Whatever you have entered at that moment is what gets marked. Your teacher can also close the lab early, which submits everyone immediately.
Your work is saved as you go, so a closed lab never loses what you had done.
Your result
At the end you see your score and stars, and — for every calculation — your answer beside the correct one, so you can see exactly where a number went wrong.
Stars fill proportionally to your percentage rather than all-or-nothing.
Your teacher may turn the result into a grade in your journal.
Rules and limits
- Assigned by a teacher — you cannot start one yourself.
- Group membership locks once you start.
- Auto-submit at the deadline, and on teacher close.
- Progress saves continuously.
- Answers are re-checked on the server, so the score is the real one.
Troubleshooting
"The lab closed while I was working." The window ended or your teacher closed it. Your saved work was submitted and scored.
"My answer was marked wrong but looks right." Check units and rounding. Answers are accepted within a tolerance, but a centimetres-for-metres slip falls outside it.
"Nothing happens when I drag something." That step may not be the active one. Follow the instruction banner — it names the exact next action.
"I cannot change group." Groups lock at start. Ask your teacher.
"The timer shows longer than the lesson." It counts down to the earlier of your own duration and the class window.