## 1 Introduction
### Theoretical Background
#### 1.1.2 Virtual Laboratories vs. Conventional Laboratories  
Virtual systems can simplify learning by highlighting salient information and removing confusing details such as obtaining the predicted desirable, eliminating the predictable undesirable, and decreasing the unpredicted undesirable [16], exploring unobservable phenomena, linking observable and unobservable phenomena, pointing out salient information, providing online, adaptive scaffolding guidance. Learners can conduct experiments about unobservable phenomena, such as chemical reactions, thermodynamics, or electricity. This enables learners to perform more experiments and thus to gather more information in the same amount of time it would take to do the physical experiment and to enable learners to conduct multiple experiments in a short amount of time. Moreover, learners realize how to extract valid information from a complex visualization in virtual experiments. Virtual labs can be defined as an interactive environment where learners can draw on authentic experiences by conducting experiments. Students can access virtual laboratories to make direct observations, especially when getting access to a real laboratory is too expensive or even dangerous, like the Radioactivity iLab, in which students can measure radiation from a sample of radioactive material without being exposed to radiation [17]. Apart from creating a safer and cheaper environment, digital laboratories can help visualize the subject matter, which will improve learners' understanding. An experiment was conducted at senior high school in Saudi Arabia. It was aimed at measuring the impact of virtual labs on the educational science process. Working in the virtual laboratory really improved the quality of delivering information to the students, who were able to conduct the experiments individually. Moreover, the learners received adequate feedback during the learning process, and it was easier for the teachers to assess the students' performance [18]. If studentsget accustomed to conducting experiments at school, the transition to the university level will be significantly easier for them because they will associate the laboratory-based work with a pleasurable experience. Anecdotal evidence suggests that not all students at university are willing to conduct laboratory experiments. Moreover, if they skip a class dedicated to laboratory-based work, they often have difficulty getting access to the laboratory in order to conduct the experiment individually. However, a virtual laboratory solves this problem because students can complete their laboratory assignments at their own pace. In addition to applying digital twins in laboratory experiments, engineering students can be involved in developing a simulation model, its verification, and testing. In a study conducted at Helsinki Metropolitan University of Applied Sciences groups of students participated in designing a 3-D model of mechatronics equipment and converting it into a digital twin. According to the results of the survey conducted after the experiment, the students who had participated in the project pointed out that their motivation for studying and their own responsibility for learning had increased. They also claimed that digital twin technology had made learning easier [19]. We believe that only undergraduate or even postgraduate engineering students can be involved in such major projects. Freshmen and sophomores are more likely to be users of digital twins rather than developers. For them working in a virtual laboratory can serve as a springboard for further research into digital twin technology and even developing digital twins of their own. Consequently, freshmen and sophomores working in virtual laboratories improve their skills in recording, reporting, and interpreting observations; higher-level cognitive skills of deductive reasoning, hypothesis formation and testing, and skills related to manipulative and instrument use.