Abstract
In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic compelled the field of education to swiftly redesign courses for hybrid and online teaching environments. The lack of in-person learning prompted professionals to rapidly incorporate unique and previously never-seen teaching practices in numerous different fields. One of the biggest challenges that educators have been facing during these difficult times is the lack of hands-on technology-based teaching activites under hybrid and online environments. To mitigate this issue, a small, affordable, and 3D-printed visible spectrophotometer (SpectroBox) was developed to allow instructors to rapidly create a portable instrument and provide a hands-on learning experience for students. SpectroBox is mainly a do-it-yourself at-home platform specifically designed for rapid implementation; thus, instructors can deploy SpectroBox under various learning environments, such as remote and hybrid practices. Included parts are in a small package and are transportable via standard parcel delivery; consequently, students can get access to these spectrometric units rapidly and easily. In this work, detailed design, schematics, and step-by-step instructions are presented for instructors to easily incorporate this system. The SpectroBox project was implemented and tested during the Fall 2020 semester, and student assessment data indicated that the theoretical and practical aspects of visible spectroscopy were better understood by 67% of students with this hands-on learning exercise. The final learning outcome of this project was a broad skillset possessed by students, including 3D printable object design, spectrometer assembly, principles of optical spectroscopy, exploration of design components, basic electronics, data acquisition and processing. SpectroBox helped students to fully understand the fundamentals of visible spectroscopy and ultimately improved their expertise in the field of spectroscopy.