Go-Lab

The Go-Lab project will open up remote science laboratories, their data archives, and virtual models (“online labs”) for large-scale use in education. Go-Lab enables science inquiry-based learning that promotes acquisition of deep conceptual domain knowledge and inquiry skills and directs students to careers in science.

For students (10 to 18-years old), Go-lab offers the opportunity to perform personalized scientific experiments with online labs in pedagogically structured and scaffolded learning spaces that are extended with social communication facilities.

For teachers, Go-Lab offers pedagogical “plug, share, and play” through a Web-based interface and a community framework to disseminate best practices and find mutual support. A modular approach and inquiry classroom scenarios promote a seamless incorporation of online labs into the classroom.

For lab-owners, Go-Lab provides open interfacing solutions to easily plug in their online labs, construct their virtual didactic counterparts, and share them in the Go-Lab federation of online labs. Go-Lab will thus promote their scientific activities.

The project starts with a set of online labs from worldwide renowned research organisations (e.g., CERN, ESA) and then from selected universities and, based on initial in-depth pilots, will gradually improve and expand its series of online labs and associated inquiry learning opportunities with the increasing contribution of teacher and lab-owner communities. More advanced and later versions will be evaluated and validated in large scale pilots.

The Go-Lab project throughout Europe will expand the resources for teaching science in schools and provide more challenging, authentic and higher-order learning experiences for students. Its sustainability will come from the opportunity for the larger science education community to add new online labs. An open and Web-based community will capitalize on the ‘collective intelligence’ of students, teachers, and scientists.

Consortium

University Twente (The Netherlands)
Ellinogermaniki Agogi (Greece)
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Switzerland)
EUN Partnership (Belgium)
IMC AG (Germany)
Reseau Menon E.E.I.G. (Belgium)
Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (Spain)
University of Leicester (United Kingdom)
University of Cyprus (Cyprus)
Universitat Duisburg-Essen (Germany)
Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (Greece)
Universidad de la Iglesia de Deusto (Spain)
Fachhochschule Karnten – Gemeinnutzige Privatstiftung (Austria)
Tartu Ulikool (Estonia)
European Organization for Nuclear Research (Switzerland)
European Space Agency (France)
University of South Wales (United Kingdom)
Institute of Accelerating Systems and Applications (Greece)
Nucleo Interactivo de Astronomia (Portugal)
Cardiff University (United Kingdom)