Improving Material Property Understanding with Virtual Experiments: A New Approach to Teach About Mechanical Testing of Materials Using an Interactive Desktop App

The knowledge of the mechanical properties of polymers and other materials is essential for several tasks in the field of materials science, like component design and material development. The tensile test is one method of determining many of the material’s most defining mechanical characteristics. However, the teaching of laboratory experiments can be difficult when it needs to be incorporated into online-based education. This study presents a teaching concept that leads students on an online learning platform through the execution of the tensile test with educational videos, handouts, and an interactive desktop app. The app allows to simulate tensile tests of currently 79 materials at various testing temperatures and to compare their properties. Students can learn from exploring the different materials and are also able to extend the app’s database for their personal use. Learning progress was evaluated with tests before and after the teaching unit, which significantly increased the achieved score afterward. Further results from a survey of the participating students indicate that they appreciate the online-based teaching concept and that the prepared learning tools motivated them to deal with the subject matter.