This paper is intended for people who are interested in using online remote laboratories in education. Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) have started a cooperation together with the Upper Secondary School, Katedralskolan, in Lund, Sweden. The purpose of the cooperation is to introduce remote laboratory environment for students at Katedralskolan. A remote laboratory (RL) in electronic is used as a complement to the traditional workbench. It is open 24/7 and the students can carry out laboratory assignments without any risks of damaging any equipment. When a student is familiar with the instruments and components in a laboratory assignment, and carried out parts of the experiments in the hands-on laboratory in school she/he may use the RL to finish the laboratory assignment. The students may also carry out additional experiments remote laboratory or use it to prepare for an exam. 

The use of remote laboratories in courses at university level has been reported in literature numerous times since the mid 90?s. In this article focus is on activities carried out by teachers and students, at the Upper Secondary School Level, using the remote laboratory VISIR (Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality). The Upper Secondary School, Katedralskolan in Lund, Sweden, cooperate with Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden, in a project that concerns the introduction of remote laboratory environment suitable for Upper Secondary School science courses. A remote laboratory in electronics has been introduced and is used as a complement to the traditional workbench in the hands-on laboratory. Significant results from the project are; 1) the great interest shown by the students for the remote experiments, 2) the students appreciation for the fact that it was not simulations but actual real experiments, 3) the remote laboratory is easy to implement for use by both teachers and students and 4) it can be used simultaneously by many students.

This paper describes a remote implementation of Galileos inclined plane experiment, focused on secondary school students. A remotely controlled inclined plane has been designed and implemented in the VISIR lab at Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH), Sweden. In this demo session, it will be demonstrated how to perform measurements remotely in the remotely controlled Inclined Plane Laboratory. A web camera is used to show the experiment. Data concerning the distance a cube has slided down the inclined plane are collected. These data are stored in a file and can subsequently be analyzed by the students. The friction acting on the cube sliding down the inclined plane and its acceleration may for instance be investigated.

The manufacturing industry are dependent of engineering expertise. Currently the ability to supply the industry with engineering graduates and staff that have an up-to-date and relevant competences might be considered as a challenge for the society. In this paper an education approach is presented where academia - industry - research institutes cooperate around the development and implementation of master level courses. The methods applied to reach the educational goals, concerning expert competence within remote diagnostics, have been on site and remote lectures given by engineering, medical and metrology experts. The pedagogical approach utilized has been flipped classroom. The main results show that academic courses developed in cooperation with industry requires flexibility, time and effort from the involved partners. The evaluation interviews indicate that student are satisfied with the courses and pedagogical approach but suggests more reconciliation meetings for course development. Labs early in the course was considered good, and division of labs at the system and the component level. However further long-term studies of evaluation of impact is necessary.

The educational phenomena studied in this paper is remote-controlled physical laboratory environments and their applicability in upper secondary school physics education. In order to gain a better understanding of the situation and needs regarding laboratory activities in the upper secondary school, eight physics teachers were interviewed at six different schools. This revealed that the resources for laboratory activities vary between schools and may be inconsistent with the Swedish National Agency for Education curriculum. Furthermore, 165 upper secondary school students answered a questionnaire survey regarding subject preferences, program choices, views on technology and self-ability, and approach to technology and technology-related situations. The acquired knowledge provides a basis concerning the needs and conditions of teaching and learning within the subject of physics. This new knowledge motivates the development of the Flipped laboratory concept that is introduced in this paper, based on remote-controlled physical laboratories, for upper secondary school. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

It is hard to attract young persons to engineering and other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields of education in Sweden. Factors, such as interest and ability, are affecting the educational orientation of students, and many studies suggest that there are gender related differences in students’ perceptions regarding different subject areas. Nevertheless, it is not fully evident why students’ make their educational choices. In this paper, Swedish upper secondary school students’ perceptions of interest and self-efficacy are studied in the form of a questionnaire survey to gain deeper understanding on the choices that are made. Open-ended questions regarding subject interest, as well as questions connecting STEM-related situations with perceived emotions were included, in addition to direct questions regarding interest and self-efficacy. Differences were seen both with respect to educational orientation and to gender, which confirms previous studies. Male students were interested in subjects that are accurate, logical, and scientific, while the female students emphasized the analytical and challenging aspects, in the sense that the subjects forced them to think. Interest and future opportunities affected the choice of program, while the student’s own perceived ability seemed less important. Results with respect to emotions showed that the female students in this study felt insecure and scared in STEM-related situations to higher degree than male students did. Students on the social science program were bored and uninterested, while natural science and technology program students were more interested and confident in STEM-related scenarios. These findings help us to understand how students approach STEM situations, and how to take necessary measures to equalize these situations using a norm-critical approach. © 2022 by the authors.