{"id":18703,"date":"2016-05-30T08:57:30","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T12:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/edc\/?p=18703"},"modified":"2026-05-06T13:28:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:28:04","slug":"bringing-classroom-concepts-to-the-virtual-lab-spotlight-on-michael-donkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2016\/bringing-classroom-concepts-to-the-virtual-lab-spotlight-on-michael-donkers\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing classroom concepts to the virtual lab: Spotlight on Michael Donkers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Bringing classroom concepts to the virtual lab: Spotlight on Michael Donkers\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

By Alison Sandstrom, TLS staff writer <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Physics Prof. Michael Donkers believes the best way to learn is to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing that beats getting down and dirty with what\u2019s going on in the lab,\u201d says the Carleton University contract instructor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, students often don\u2019t have an opportunity to explore all the theories and phenomena they learn about in class in the laboratory, whether it\u2019s due to a lack of time or resources, or dangerous materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help address this situation, Donkers is developing a Virtual Lab Environment (VLE). This set of interactive modules will allow students to set input parameters, conduct simulated experiments and receive data complete with reading errors, statistical fluctuations and occasional variations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe idea of the VLE is to create a very realistic computer interface which would model very closely what an actual experimentalist might have in the lab,\u201d says Donkers. \u201cIt gives students a way to virtually interact with some of the concepts they\u2019ve been studying in class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donkers won the 2016 Contract Instructor Teaching Innovation Grant<\/a> to develop the VLE. The $6,000 grant will allow him to hire a summer student to design visuals and graphics for the project. He\u2019s currently coding the lab experiments himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donkers says almost any physical experiment could be simulated in the VLE. When it\u2019s up and running, math and science students of all majors will be able to use it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBasically any science that lives on data can be modeled in the VLE, that includes physics, chemistry, engineering, geology, I can even envision it being used for economics,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donkers says he was inspired to create the VLE by a set of simulations from the University of Colorado. He\u2019s used them in his courses before, but found them limiting because they didn\u2019t give students a lot of control over input parameters and always returned answers free of measurement and reading errors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was no need for the student to think \u2018what in the real world could be affecting why I\u2019m not seeing the things I expect,\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Donkers wanted to build on the idea behind the simulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s have students have to think for themselves what might be impacting their results and therefore be able to draw conclusions and write a good lab report,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donkers hopes to have the some early prototypes of the VLE ready for testing by the end of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Sandstrom, TLS staff writer Physics Prof. Michael Donkers believes the best way to learn is to do. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing that beats getting down and dirty with what\u2019s going on in the lab,\u201d says the Carleton University contract instructor. However, students often don\u2019t have an opportunity to explore all the theories and phenomena they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18703"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43095,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18703\/revisions\/43095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}