Including online labs in science education classrooms

© Go-Lab Project - Global Online Science Labs for
Inquiry Learning at School Co-funded by EU
(7th Framework Programme)
Including online labs in science education
classrooms: theory, evidence,
and the Go-Lab technological
affordances
Ton de Jong
Department of
Instructional
Technology
University of Twente

 Inquiry Learning
 Go-Lab online laboratories
 Occuring problems & solutions
 Offers by Go-Lab
Contents
2© Go-Lab Project - Global Online Science Labs for Inquiry Learning at School
Co-funded by EU (7th
Framework Programme)

We need engaging (science and
engineering) instruction

Trends and technology
 Constructive (inquiry) learning
 Collaborative learning
 Situated learning
 Computer simulations/
games/online laboratories
 Modeling (design) environments
 Shared objects
 Chatsm, video conferencing
 Simulators/Online laboratories

Inquiry is an approach to learning that involves a process
of exploration, that leads to asking questions and making
discoveries in the search for new understandings
Based on „Foundations“, Vol. 2, NSF, 2000
Inquiry learning

Example projects
ZAP

Example projects
SCY

Example projects
SimQuest

Example projects
Co-Lab

Example projects

 Virtual laboratories
 Mimic physical equipment in software
 Remote laboratories
 Physical equipment that can be operated on a distance
 Data sets and their analysis tools
 Data gathered in real experiments
Go-Lab online laboratories

Virtual laboratory - buoyancy

Remote lab

Remote laboratory – Methyl Orange

Data-set/analysis tools - Hypatia

 They don‘t know how to state hypotheses
 They create poor experiments
 They do not monitor what they have done
 There is poor planning
 Etc. etc.
Do students know how to perform
inquiry processes?

Guidance
 Process contraints
 Prompts/ assignments
 Heuristics
 Scaffolds
 Background info
 Hypothesis scratchpad
 Experiment design tool
 Data interpreters
 Monitoring tool
 Etc. etc.

 If well designed, guidance included, inquiry-based
learning with online labs and simulations shows an
advantage over expository instruction
Are simulations/online labs
effective?
de Jong, T. (2006). Computer simulations -
Technological advances in inquiry learning.
Science, 312, 532-533.

 Students in online labs gain the same level of
knowledge or a more advanced level of knowledge than
students who learn in a real laboratory
Are simulations/ online labs
effective?
de Jong, T., Linn, M.C., & Zacharia, Z.C. (2013).
Physical and virtual laboratories in science and
engineering education. Science, 340, 305-308.

 For students
 Go-Lab organizes the work according to an inquiry cycle
 Go-Lab offers guidance specific for each phase
 For teachers
 A searchable database of online labs
 Authoring facilities for teachers to adapt the guidance for
their students
What Go-Lab offers

The Go-Lab Inquiry Cycle

Experiment design scafforld

 Concept map
 Hypothesis/question scratchpad
 Experiment design tool
 Data analysis tool
 Conclusion tool
 Reflection tool
Scaffolds in Go-Lab

Example Go-Lab environment

Go-Lab portal (www.golabz.eu)

Go-Lab authoring
Create Inquiry
Space button

Go-Lab in one slide
 Federation of online labs
 Embedding into educational
resources and guidance
 Sharing with the community of users

Educational Science and Technology in Twente
(click on the picture)

Thank you
for your attention!

Including online labs in science education classrooms

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