With most lab equipment not being easily accessible at home, teachers and students have turned to the online platform Pivot Interactives to experience labs without all the hassle.

Pivot began as “Direct Measurement Videos,” which gave users access to slow-motion videos of physics experiments.

“Pivot Interactives has taken it a step farther and added the measurement tools directly to the videos, so we can now click and drag the rulers and other measurement tools around the video,” AP Physics 1 and AP Physics C teacher Christine Rittenhouse said via email. “Pivot also allows students to graph their data, and there are analysis questions to go along with most videos.”

Pivot showcases real videos of someone performing the experiment while many other online lab websites only use digital simulations.

“Sometimes I don’t understand what the lab is asking me to find since I’m just watching a video with no prior context,” Saxena said via text. “However, a positive is that you can get the information about the lab without having to set up an investigation.

For sophomore Kritika Ramesh, Pivot has helped students gain a better grasp of what they are learning in class.

“I think Pivot opens doors to virtual students, in that we are still able to get a similar experience of labs and learn through different ways,” Ramesh said via text. “It has some really neat features that help virtual students, to get a better understanding of the material being learned.”