Objective Systematic and panoramic analysis of the functional experiment teaching research, showing the research direction, development context and prospect of functional experiment since the 21st century. Methods We retrieved and screened literature on functional experiment in CNKI, WANFANG DATA and VIP databases, from January 1st, 2000 to December 31st, 2021, used VOSviewer and CiteSpace visualization tools to draw a knowledge graph. Results A total of 1,801 papers were included, with 27 papers published in 2000, 119 papers published in 2015, 44 papers published on average in 2000-2005, 101 papers published on average in 2006-2016, and 86 papers published on average in 2017-2021. The frequency of occurrence of keywords is: ″functional laboratory″ 108, ″design experiment″ 60, ″experiment teaching reform″ 57, ″comprehensive experiment″ 50, ″teaching mode″ 47, forming 5 clusters in total. The emerging words in 2021 are ″flipped classroom″, ″virtual experiment″ and ″application of teaching methods and technologies″, among which flipped classroom has the highest emerging intensity. Conclusions The publication number is on the rise, and the development of functional experiment is divided into four stages: preliminary construction, comprehensive construction, stable development, and extended refinement. The research clustering directions are: ″laboratory construction″, ″experimental teaching reform″, ″development of teaching mode″, ″integration of experimental courses of three major disciplines″ and ″innovative ability″. The research hotspots are ″functional laboratory″, ″designed experiment″, ″experimental teaching reform″, ″comprehensive experiment″ and ″teaching mode″. The research frontier is the development of teaching mode, and the flipped classroom may become the next research hotspot.