Using a virtual laboratory to better understand chemistry - An experimental study on acquiring knowledge

Understanding chemistry includes the ability to think on three levels: the macroscopic level, the symbolic level and the level of particles, where an effective tool can be the use of virtual laboratories. We carried out a didactic experiment to test the effectiveness of virtual laboratory from pupils´ perspective. We asked ourselves the question whether the learning outcomes of pupils are better when they do experiments in a virtual laboratory in comparison to science classes without visualization elements. The results showed, that in terms of knowledge acquisition, using the virtual laboratory is better than science classes without visualization elements.