They speculated that the improved performance was due to the model of current flow given by the moving electrons in the simulation, which is not apparent when viewing real circuits. They found that the students who saw the demonstration with the simulation performed significantly better on a concepTest than the students who saw the demonstration with the real equipment. 2006) replaced the equipment in a lecture demo on circuits with the Circuit Construction Kit simulation in one section of a large lecture introductory physics class. In another study, researchers ( Keller et al. This study shows that simulations can be effective not just in traditional labs, but in carefully researched inquiry-based curricula. They found that students using the simulations performed slightly better or about the same. 2005) replaced the equipment in an inquiry-based tutorial from Tutorials in Introductory Physics with the Circuit Construction Kit simulation for half the recitations sections. They found that students who used the simulation were able to build a real circuit in less time than students who used the real equipment, and performed better on a challenge question immediately following the laboratory and on final exam questions on DC circuits two months later. 2004, 2005) did a research study in which they replaced the equipment in a DC circuits lab with the Circuit Construction Kit simulation for half the lab sections in an introductory college physics course. Members of the PhET team (Finkelstein et al. Research shows that substituting the PhET Circuit Construction Kit simulation for real equipment in a variety of contexts leads to improved conceptual learning in the best cases, and the same conceptual learning in the worst cases. To find labs that others have developed, go to the PhET Activities Database and do a search setting 'type' to 'lab.' Look for the PhET logo to find activities developed by the PhET Team, and look for a gold star to find activities that follow the PhET Activity Guidelines. To get started developing effective labs that use the simulations, take a look at the PhET Activity Guidelines. While simulations can certainly be incorporated into cookbook labs, research shows that guided-inquiry activities are more productive for conceptual learning. On the other hand, the simulations have many unique and productive features that real equipment does not share, and it is also possible to make significant modifications to labs and tutorials to take advantage of the particular features of simulations. This is easy to do and research shows that it works well. The most straightforward way to do this is to simply substitute the simulation for the equipment without changing the lab or tutorial at all. PhET simulations can be incorporated into any kind of lab or tutorial that uses real equipment with a corresponding simulation. The PhET team has developed an alternative tutorial which attempts to take advantage of the unique characteristics of the simulation, rather than just inserting it into a tutorial designed for use with real equipment: However, research shows that using the simulation (with or without showing the electrons) leads to as much conceptual learning as using real equipment. One might think that these tutorials are incompatible with the Circuit Construction Kit simulation because the simulation reveals too much of the model by showing the electrons and therefore cuts short students' process of constructing the model for themselves. They guide the students through the process of constructing a model based on observations. These tutorials have been carefully constructed based on research into student understanding of physics. The tutorial study used tutorials from the University of Washington: Simulations can be incorporated into labs you already teach. The main point of these studies is that simulations can lead to improved learning even in an ordinary lab that is not carefully designed. However, the labs themselves, while somewhat inquiry-based, are not exceptional or developed based on research. The specific laboratories used in the PhET research studies on replacing real equipment with a simulation in circuits labs are available from the PhET activities database:ДC circuits lab with real equipment and CCK

DC Circuits Challenge