Lab manager Bill Luebke, by using 3D modeling, helped move physics labs online by creating short animations of apparatus demonstrating experiments. Students watched short video animations and then completed lab reports using a data set that they would have collected in the lab. When the physical labs resume, these simulations could be used as pre-lab work to prepare students for the lab itself.

“To improve the remote laboratory experience for the students, in conjunction with distributing the data they would have collected in the lab, I created animated three-dimensional models of the apparatus to produce a virtual visual representation of the various measurements represented in the data. I edited these animations, along with explanation slides, into short video clips that were uploaded to YouTube. A link to these YouTube clips was distributed to the students along with the spreadsheet containing the lab data.”

—Bill Luebke, physics lab manager at Illinois Tech