Abstract:

Nowadays students show an increasing lack of motivation when learning Science. This suggests, among other things, the predominance of a classical approach and a missing contextualization of scientific concepts. With the overwhelming usage of new technologies by students it is necessary to promote e-learning as a normal part of the practice over time, complementing traditional teaching/learning methods.
Science is inherently experimental, and students can develop a much better empathy for the subject, and greater insight into its principles, if they are active participants in scientific discovery. However, for many different reasons, it is not always possible for students to perform experiments in the classroom or even by themselves.
Elab is an undergoing project to create an on-line full platform for experimental learning.
This platform is in fact an on-line virtual working environment for a real laboratory. Accessing elab, using a simple computer with an Internet connection, will allow any user to control a real experimental apparatus, viewing its evolution in a real time video feed and collecting real data to work with. Users can also chat and share results.
The elab application has been developed by a consortium formed by Linkare TI – a Portuguese IT company, and IST – a Portuguese university. Currently there is an elab, at IST, with over 12 live experimental apparatus and available to university students. There is also a pilot project being developed by this consortium to the Portuguese Ministry of Education. This project will begin with a set of 6 different experiments covering different themes on sciences and mathematics, dedicated to students of basic and secondary school levels. It will also include other educational contents to support the experiments as well as dedicated options to ease it’s use in the classroom or by students autonomously.

Keywords:

Elab, science, mathematics, education, on-line, internet, laboratory, experiment.