Professional and hobby hands-on-remote experiments

This contribution concerns hands-on-remote experiments that were proposed in 2018 by the authors as a new format of school experiments. A hands-on-remote experiment is a traditional hands-on and remotely controlled experiment simultaneously. Professional remote laboratories based on the ISES platform are described briefly. We have finished a new remote experiment on mapping the magnetic field of the Helmholtz coils. Further hobby remote laboratories based on the popular and cheap Arduino platform are discussed. A new fully functional remotely controlled experiment is based on our freely downloadable software kit “Remduino Lab SDK“(available at www.ises.info). With this platform even a non-programmer can build his/her first science remote experiment, featuring the remote control via Internet, live video stream of a real experimental setup and a simple record and download of user’s experimental data. Measured values may be simply downloaded to any MS-Excel-like spreadsheet processor. An example of hands-on-remote experiments illustrates their application in physics lessons. The experimental setup can be accessed and controlled remotely from any mobile device like common tablets, notebooks, smartphones, etc. Therefore it can be a traditional hands-on experiment handled locally, and even accessed via near-remote control from students’ mobile devices within the class and lesson, which addresses the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) strategy. After school the experiment remains accessible through far-remote control via Internet. Hands-on-remote experiments can be available for anyone, at any time, and from anywhere and they address both advantages and disadvantages of remote laboratories.