Global Lab: From Classroom Labs to Real-World Research Labs

The Global Laboratory Project combines several innovations in science education to create a community of students, teachers, scientists, engineers and educators investigating local and global environmental change. A key goal of the project is to extend the investigative scope of a science class from the classroom laboratory to research problems in the real world. To do this, the project focuses on a topic of interest to many students: the environment. We use a curricular model of project-based science along with telecomputing and innovative instrumentation to facilitate teacher and student entry into real-world research. We have expanded microcomputer-based laboratories (MBL) to include remote data collection capabilities along with low-cost adaptations of state-of-the-art instrumentation. In this fertile mix of methods and resources, students share data, reports, and analyses about investigations that matter to them, and in doing so, learn how to use the tools and techniques of scientific research.