Ideas for remote lab instructions

[maxwell3e10]

With universities starting to close due to COVID, I am wondering what activities students can do in place of laboratory classes. Any suggestions for cool phone or computer apps that would let students interact with the physical world? Or maybe simple kits that can be purchased and used without other equipment?

In general, typical students these days are much more comfortable with computer simulation and analysis than with real experiments. Lab classes are designed to counteract this tendency, so I don't want to completely loose the hands-on aspect.

[Kleinstein]

It depends a lot on the level of the students and what topic (electronics, mechanics, acoustics, thermodynamics)

Measure some quantities with a limited set of tools available can be fun too. So it would be one step further than the usual pre-build lab experiments: design your own experiment for a given target. It would be discussion first to compare suggested solutions. Than build the maybe 2 different suggstions and compare.

An example would be measure the speed of sound with the things they have at hand.  The earths gravity is another example relatively easy to do. Another nice little experiment is to measure the heat needed to melt ice. It is nice to remember that number and doing the experiment is a very good way not to forget.