Understanding the Scientific Method Improves Science Fair Projects

The title of this blog, Understanding the Scientific Method Improves Science Fair Projects, is also a hypothesis. We will discuss how to test it below.

While tremendous emphasis is placed on the concept of scientific hypotheses in precollege science education, there is an amazingly wide variety of interpretations of what exactly they are and how to use them. Even the scientific method itself can be found to differ slightly from reference to reference on an Internet search. This is probably reasonable, since each practicing scientist has her/his own view of these matters and conducts their original scientific investigations with a unique style. There are undoubtedly many different legitimate ways of considering the scientific method. However, for students in the K-12 system, it is best to settle upon a given approach and stick to it, rather than introducing variations from grade level to grade level.

At the heart of the scientific method is the ability to state a hypothesis, make testable predictions based on the hypothesis, and identify the important variables. As you will see below, we have chosen a method of approaching the issue of hypothesis, prediction, and variables with a two step, rather automatized, system that many teachers and students we have worked with have found useful.  First, the hypothesis is presented as a simple statement. Second, a prediction is constructed in which the hypothesis and the independent and dependent variables are embedded in an “If > then” formulation. It is quite easy to learn.

Observations

One of the key features of modern experimental science is that an idea must always be tested. Testing an idea means that someone has an hypothesis and then goes about testing his or her prediction about the hypothesis by exploring which variables need to be considered. To do this, we also need to consider why someone would be making a hypothesis or prediction in the first place. Usually, this occurs because someone makes an observation and wants to explain or understand it further.

What is an observation and what might someone observe? Think about observations as things you notice about the system you are studying. For example, what are its parts, why is it of interest, what are potential variables? Most people make observations about phenomena they experience or about data they view from an event. It’s then almost inevitable that someone asks how the thing he or she observes (one variable) is related to something else he/she observes (other variables). That person may also question what might happen if he/she begins to make changes in the variables.

Let’s take an example and assume someone was observing a phenomenon such as the construction of a circuit. They may observe that a circuit includes batteries, wires, and resistors and that an electrical current travels through the circuit. The resistors and other components provide resistance to the flow of electrical current. The batteries provide a source of voltage for the circuit. (Note: It is not necessary to understand the concept of a circuit, resistance, or voltage at this time, we are only using circuits as an example.)

Questions that result from these observations about circuits might be:

• What would happen if the voltage of the circuit changed?
• Does a change in the voltage produce a change in the current of the circuit?
• Do changes in resistors change the current in a circuit?

Variables

The questions above can help us to determine the variables of an experiment. One way to think about variables is to consider how different properties, pieces of data, or observations are related to each other. If we take the last two questions above, we can highlight the variables:

• Does a change in the voltage produce a change in the current of the circuit?

The variables are voltage and current.

• Do changes in resistors change the current in a circuit?

The variables are resistors and current.

Hypotheses and Predictions

Hypotheses and predictions are often ways to propose and test a relationship between variables. A hypothesis is a statement, NOT a question about observations or the relationship between variables. For example, from our observations and questions above, one hypothesis might be: Current is related to resistance. Notice that this is a simple statement.

A prediction is a statement that presents the relationship between variables in a hypothesis in a way that can be tested. One easy way to think about predictions is to consider them as “If-then” statements that include the hypothesis.

Let’s take our hypothesis from above as an example. Using that hypothesis, one prediction might be: If current is related to resistance, then changing the current would change the resistance.

Putting It All Together

Now that we’ve looked at variables, hypotheses, and predictions individually, let’s try to see if we can identify each of these when they are put together. The paragraph below describes a situation in which a girl made some observations and then created an experiment to test her observations.

Julia had a pet lizard. She observed that it did not feel the same temperature all of the time. She thought that the lizard’s body temperature is directly related to the air temperature. Julia proposed that if the lizard’s body temperature is directly related to the air temperature, then increasing the air temperature will increase the lizard’s body temperature.

Let’s see if you can identify the variables, hypothesis, and prediction in this example. Take a moment to reread the paragraph above. Then look below to find the answers. In the paragraph below, the hypothesis is italicized; the variables are in bold, and the prediction is underlined.

Julia had a pet lizard. She observed that it did not feel the same temperature all of the time. She thought that the lizard’s body temperature is directly related to the air temperature. Julia proposed that if the lizard’s body temperature is directly related to the air temperature, then increasing the air temperature will increase the lizard’s body temperature.

Julia asked her Mom for help. They placed the lizard in cages of different temperatures for a day and then measured its body temperature. The table below shows the data.

Look at the data. You should see that as the air temperature increased, the body temperature of the lizard increased. This suggests that Julia’s prediction was true. She predicted that increasing the air temperature would increase the lizard’s body temperature. The data from the table is consistent with this prediction.

In addition, Julia’s hypothesis was proven by her results. The body temperature of the lizard is directly related to the air temperature.

Back to the Beginning (Hypothetical Experiment Only: Don’t Perform with Your Class!) 

Now we can get back to the title of this blog and apply what we have learned about hypotheses, predictions, and variables to the issue of the scientific method and science fair projects.

Hypothesis: Understanding the Scientific Method Improves Science Fair Projects

Prediction: If understanding the scientific method improves science fair projects, then teaching students the scientific method will improve the quality of their science fair projects.

Variables: 1) learning the scientific method and 2) science fair performance

Experiment: Fifteen students (experimental group) were thoroughly taught the scientific method with emphasis on what a hypothesis, prediction, and variables are and how to use them. Another fifteen students (control group) were not taught the scientific method. Students were randomly assigned to the two groups. Both groups prepared science fair projects. At the science fair, judges rated all 30 of the projects on a scale of 1 (poor quality) to 10 (high quality). After the fair, an average score was calculated for both the experimental and control groups of contestants. The following are samples of potential results that could be obtained from this experiment:

Results – Scenario One:

Results – Scenario Two:

Results – Scenario Three:

Consider the three different types of results presented in the three scenarios above and the likely conclusions that may be drawn from them:

In Scenario One, the group that was taught the scientific method (experimental group) scored better on their science fair projects, on average, than the group that was not taught the scientific method (control group). This scenario agrees with the prediction and tends to support the original hypothesis. The hypothesis would be correct.

In Scenario Two, the experimental group scored lower on their science fair projects, on average, than the control group. This scenario disagrees with the prediction and therefore does not support the original hypothesis. The hypothesis would be wrong.

In Scenario Three, the experimental group and the control group scored about the same. This scenario does not agree with the prediction and does not support the original hypothesis. The hypothesis would therefore be wrong again.

Based on the three potential outcomes of the experiment we see that two of the three outcomes (Scenarios Two and Three) suggest that the original hypothesis is likely incorrect. Only one of the potential results (Scenario One) agrees with the prediction and supports the original hypothesis!

This is a good experiment because regardless of the results we will learn something about the involvement of understanding the scientific method on science fair performance.

Summary

Hypotheses, predictions, and variables are important because they present a way to think about, test, and potentially solve a problem or answer a question. Whether you are conducting experiments to determine causes of an oil spill, factors involved in increasing the efficiency of an internal combustion engine, or the effect of certain velocities of impact on human brain concussions, understanding the relationship between hypotheses, predictions, and variables can help you comprehend and apply your data.

Article written by Dr. Christine Jurasinski of LabLearner

April 20, 2010 was a date that changed the way we view natural resources, our oceans and our technological capabilities. It was the day that the Deepwater Horizon exploded and the Macondo well began releasing what would become billions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. For three months, many of us waited day by day for positive news. The news finally came in mid-July with the successful capping of the well. We have yet to completely understand how the largest oil spill in our nation’s history will effect the Gulf and beyond. However, one of the side effects may be an increase in our awareness of hydrocarbons and the research that focuses on them. This has been just the case for me, and so explains why this recently published article caught my attention.

For 9th grade students in Cognitive Learning System’s Exploration21 program, it is an article that directly relates to the Gulf of Oil Spill that they have been studying in the last several months. For LabLearner students, it is an extension of some of the concepts they have and will investigate in the Changing Earth and Earth’s Changing Surface GAP Units and in the Chemical Reactions, Adaptations, Genes and Proteins and Ecosystems CELLs.

The article comes out of the Oregon State University and involves an undersea mountain called the Atlantic Massif. Researchers involved in the project drilled 1.4 kilometers (roughly the same distance as to the Macondo well) into the undersea mountain to collect core samples. What they found surprised them and opened up the possibility that there is an entirely unexplored ecosystem of microorganisms that exists deep beneath the ocean’s surface and the Earth’s crust.

The Atlantic Massif is an unusually tall undersea mountain located along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. LabLearner students who have completed the Changing Earth GAP Unit would be familiar with this geologic formation. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is an area on the ocean floor where new seafloor or new crust is made. As tectonic plates in this area move apart, molten rock from the mantle of the Earth is pulled up and cools. The result is the formation new seafloor crust. What makes the Atlantic Massif so important in this study is that it represents an upheaval of the Earth’s crust along the ridge and allows researchers access to parts of the Earth’s crust that can normally be found only after drilling 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) through the crust. Here these same layers are accessible after only about 1.4 kilometers (about 1 mile).

What researchers found after looking at their samples was that there appeared to be a great degree of biologic activity in rock at this depth. After determining the DNA and RNA sequences of the organisms, they concluded that the microorganisms possessed the genes necessary for hydrocarbon (methane) degradation as well as the genetic potential to be able to fix both nitrogen and carbon. In this way, these microbes are similar to the “oil eating” microbes that gained so much national attention during the first few months of the oil spill.

Nitrogen and carbon fixation are also important because they are the processes by which gaseous nitrogen and carbon dioxide can be chemically converted into compounds containing carbon and nitrogen such as ammonia or sugars and stored.

The discovery of life beneath the ocean’s crust is exciting because up until recently, no one really expected to find biological activity here. Finding it now opens up the possibility of these microorganisms serving as a way for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to be stored deep within the ocean’s crust. It may also create new research into how these organisms could play a role in the control or recovery from oil spills like that of the Macondo well this summer.

For LabLearner students this article holds keys to how the concepts they learn in their CELLs are used in yet another area of science. Understanding DNA, RNA and the information contained in their sequences is the key focus in the Genes and Proteins CELL. What students may not have realized was that this type of information can be gained from organisms in rock samples found kilometers below the surface of the ocean. In addition, the microorganisms found in these rocks were flourishing at temperatures around 101ºC and presumably consuming hydrocarbons. Students studying the Adaptation CELL would be able to view this as an example of successful adaptation to selection pressures of that environment. The potential ability of the microorganisms to carry out carbon and nitrogen fixation also provides two real-life chemical reactions for students exploring the Chemical Reactions CELL.

Beyond all of this, this article shows us that no matter how much we already know, there is always more waiting for us to discover.

Experts agree that one of the major problems with American science education is that it is a “mile wide and an inch deep”. That is, we tend to cover too many different subjects too superficially. We plow through massive, expensive textbooks, covering chapter after chapter, never spending enough time on any topic for students to really understand what they are learning. We test and quiz regularly while students can still remember what they have been told or read. This doesn’t work for most students. Few remember a thing, let alone are able to apply what they have learned.

As many readers know very well, Cognitive Learning Systems’ preK-8 science education system, LabLearner^TM, was designed to address all of these issues. We have been successful in applying cutting edge knowledge from cognitive neuroscience and education theory to create an innovative system that consists of a full curriculum, functioning in-school lab, teacher professional development, and ongoing program support. Since its roll out, LabLearner has rapidly spread across the country into both public and private schools. However, once LabLearner students leave eighth grade and enter high school, they’re often well ahead of their peers who have not experienced LabLearner science education and are faced with a steady diet of lectures and textbook assignments rather than meaningful lab experiences and problem-solving activities.

Now, at the request of high school administrators who enroll students from LabLearner middle schools, Cognitive Learning Systems is introducing its first high school science education program for the ninth grade, Exploration21^TM. Exploration 21 offers in-depth, cross-disciplinary science education by focusing the entire academic year on only three units, or “Sectors”, designed to be of particular interest to first-year high school students. The first Sector, ASTEROID IMPACT, is based on the real-life asteroid, Apophis, which will arrive near the Earth in 2029. In the second Sector, CONCUSSION, students follow a ninth-grade soccer player, Nickie, as she recovers from a head injury obtained in a game. The third Sector, NASCAR, focuses on the physics, chemistry, and biology involved in racing.

Not only does focusing the curriculum on just three Sectors allow in-depth coverage of each subject, but the very nature of the Sectors are such that they can be used to teach scientific concepts across the entire spectrum of state and federal science education standards. Also, unlike other curricula, Exploration21 addresses each and every scientific concept in real-life context, with weekly hands-on laboratories. Each Sector spans months, as opposed to days or weeks. Simply stated, Exploration21 is the antithesis of “mile wide, inch deep” science education! As in all other Cognitive Learning Systems programs, students learn rigorous science because they are interested and are having fun while learning!

Exploration21 will first be introduced to ninth grade students at Archbishop Wood High School in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia this Fall! Exploration21 will then become available for national distribution for the 2011/12 school year. We are looking forward to working with Archbishop Wood principal, Mary Harkins, and her science faculty to bring the very best in science education to their students. Watch for more information as it becomes available on the Exploration21 website at exploration21.com.

By: Dr. Christine Jurasinski; LabLearner Staff Scientist

“Why do we need to understand photosynthesis?” This may be a question that students all over the world, including LabLearner students ask. For many, the information about a plant process may seem unrelated to their current or future interests. But, what research has shown us over and over again is that one never knows how fields, concepts, and technology will interact. Some of the latest research from MIT proves just that.

Dr. Angela Belcher and colleagues have found a way to use a photosynthetic-like process to split water in order to create hydrogen fuel. For years, researchers have been contemplating how to create this type of artificial photosynthesis. Dr. Belcher and her team now appear to have taken the first step in not only creating artificial photosynthesis but also in using it as a way to produce alternative fuels.

From an energy level, LabLearner students should recall that photosynthesis involves the conversion of light to chemical energy. Light from the sun is used to drive a chemical reaction which produces oxygen and sugars from carbon dioxide and water. Many will recognize the chemical equation for this overall process

Although the equation above makes it appear as if all of this occurs in one step, in reality, photosynthesis involves many steps and reactions. Essential to the process are plant pigments including the pigment chlorophyll. Plant pigments absorb or capture photons and thus the energy of light. Ultimately, in most plants, the energy is transferred to molecules of chlorophyll. Once absorbed, this energy then causes the transfer of electrons from chlorophyll molecules to other molecules within a plant’s cell. These molecules in turn transport electrons to other molecules. This process is called electron transfer and produces energy. This energy is used to drive the reactions that produce sugar from carbon dioxide. In addition, as a part of this electron transfer, water molecules are split producing hydrogen and oxygen.

Dr. Belcher and her colleagues have mimicked these processes on a nano-scale. To do this they used a harmless virus called M13, a pigment called zinc porphyrin, and a catalyst called iridium oxide. They altered the virus so that it would attract and bind to the molecules of pigment and catalyst. The final structure resembled a thin wire with a coating around it. The virus was the wire and the pigments and catalysts the coating. When exposed to sunlight, the pigments absorbed photons of light and transferred energy down the length of the virus/wire much like the chlorphyll and other pigments in plants. This energy was then used by the catalyst to split water that surrounded the virus/wire into oxygen and protons and electrons; a process similar to that which occurs during electron transfer in plant cells.

(image: A computer visualization of the biologically-based system shows the virus itself (in yellow) with molecules of pigment (in pink) and of the metal catalyst (brown spheres) attached to its surface. The pigment and catalyst cause water molecules to split apart when they come in contact. Click on image to view original article. Graphic courtesy of Angela Belcher.)

Once the protons and electrons produced from the splitting of water re-combine, hydrogen can be produced. It is this last half of the process on which Dr. Belcher and colleagues are currently working. They anticipate completing this last step as well as making a more affordable prototype for artificial photosynthesis within the next two years.

So why is all of this important and how does it relate to what LabLearner students learn? Well, currently water can be split, and hydrogen made using electricity. However, the generation of electricity often comes from fossil fuels. Other researchers have used solar panels to produce electricity, which is then used to split water, but this system is less efficient because of its multiple steps. The system created by Dr. Belcher would skip many of the intermediate steps and create hydrogen directly from sunlight, just like photosynthesis. If this type of system can be created on a larger scale, solar energy could be used to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen could be stored in fuel cells and then used later to produce electricity or converted into other liquid fuels. The result would be a more efficient and “green” method of producing alternative fuels.

As for relating to the LabLearner curriculum, artificial photosynthesis requires knowledge of the photosynthetic process, properties of light, energy transfer, chemical reactions, and electron flow. These topics are those studied by both elementary and middle school students in CELLs such as Chemistry, Matter and Interactions, Forms of Energy, Light, Exploring Electricity, Chemical Reactions, Electricity and Magnetism, Photosynthesis, and Light and Optics.

Finally, consider whether this and future research would evolve if Dr. Belcher and others had never learned about photosynthesis. Her research as well as that of researchers in all other fields is showing us that the future lies in the combination rather than the isolation of knowledge. You just never know when you will use what you’ve learned and how it will affect the future.

Dr. Christine Jurasinski
LabLearner Staff Scientist

How can you control brain activity?  It’s a question that has fascinated us for centuries.  Now, new research suggests that one way may lie with a strategy called optogenetics- the combination of optical and genetics techniques.

Neuroengineer Edward Boyden and his colleagues at MIT have recently discovered a way to use optogenetics to turn neurons within the brain on and off by simply exposing them to a certain wavelength of light.  Their research has far reaching implications for the treatment of conditions such as epilepsy, chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder as well as providing a new way for understanding and studying cognition, emotion and other functions of the brain.

Boyden and his collaborators discovered a protein found in a special type of bacteria called archeabacteria that inhabits the Dead Sea. Archeabacteria are a type of bacteria that tend to inhabit extreme environments like hot springs, arctic environment, sulfurous springs or the high salt concentration of the Dead Sea.

The protein they discovered acts as a pump in cells, moving protons out of the cells when active.  They also discovered that this protein, called the Arch protein, can be activated or turned on by light of yellow/green wavelength. Because protons carry a single positive charge, the movement of protons out of a cell changes the voltage within the cell.  The inside of the cell becomes more negative as compared to the outside of the cell.  As neurons work in part through electrical signals, changes in voltage are key to controlling their activity and their ability to fire and signal other neurons.

But, it’s what came next that illustrates that controlling the brain through light may not be as far off in the future as it seems.  These researchers engineered the neurons of mice to produce the Arch protein.  They then implanted a light source in the brain of the mice and found that when the Arch protein was activated in the neurons by the yellow/green light, it pumped protons outside the cells.  As a result the voltage inside the neurons dropped and stopped them from firing! In essence the researchers were able to use light to stop neurons within the brain from firing, silencing an area of the brain.

Once the light was turned off, the Arch protein turned off and “reset” itself.  Within seconds it was able to be activated by light again.  Thus, a combination of yellow/green light and the Arch protein, acted as an “electrical switch” for neurons controlling their active and inactive state.

In addition to the Arch protein, Boyden and his colleagues have found several other proton pumps that respond to other wavelengths of light including those in the red and blue ends of the spectrum.  What they hope is that by combining the different proteins and wavelengths of light different neurons and different areas of the brain could be controlled simultaneously.

How does this related to LabLearner students? Students in the LabLearner Program spend time in 4^th and 6^th grade studying the properties of light including how absorption and transmission of different wavelengths of light affect our perception of color and control biological processes such as photosynthesis.  This new research shows that understanding light and its properties may be just as important in uncovering the processes of cognition, emotion and in treating brain disorders and diseases.

Dr. Christine Jurasinski
LabLearner Staff Scientist

Mutation, allele, gene.  What do you think of when you hear these words?  Perhaps DNA comes to mind or disease or the workings of a cell.  But what about evolution?  For many, evolution brings to mind words like Darwin, finches, beaks, and fossils rather than mutations, alleles and genes.

But what about LabLearner students?  While they may begin their exploration of evolution, adaptation, mutations and natural selection by focusing on each of these topics in discrete CELLs such as Ecosystems and Adaptation,  Inheritance and Adaptation, and Genes and Proteins, they have the opportunity to combine all of this knowledge into a more complex and more scientifically “real” concept in the 7^th grade CELL Adaptation: a CELL that sets them up for understanding some of the latest research into the molecular mechanisms for how species adapt and evolve.

This newest research comes out of the lab of Dr. Erica Rosenblum of the University of Idaho.  She and her colleagues have uncovered some intriguing information about the genetic process of evolution.  Their research is centered around three species of lizards. Each of these three species exist with dark skin in many areas around the world but have evolved a white skinned variation in the White Sands of New Mexico.  And what strikes the researchers as amazing is that in two of the species, it was accomplished by DIFFERENT MUTATIONS in the SAME GENE.  Even more interesting is that one mutation is DOMINANT while the other is RECESSIVE.

As fifth grade LabLearner students learn, many organisms have two copies of each gene.  One copy on one chromosome.  The other on the other chromosome.  The two copies of the gene are called alleles.  In one of the simplest examples of inheritance of traits, one allele is dominant the other is recessive.  Organisms with two dominant alleles will show the dominant version of a trait such as brown fur.  Organisms with one dominant and one recessive allele will also have the dominant brown fur trait.  However, organisms with two recessive alleles will have the recessive trait of white fur.

What Dr. Rosenblum discovered was that in one species of lizard, the white skin was the result of a dominant allele but in the other species of lizard, the white skin was the result of a recessive allele.  In both cases, the lizards evolved from having brown skin, but it was through different methods of inheritance.

How did this happen?  The answer involves selection pressure and mutations.  About 5000 to 7000 years ago, evaporating lakes in that area of New Mexico left behind huge deposits of gypsum which eroded away leaving an entirely white area of desert in what had once been a brown area.  Lizards which had been living there were brown skinned, which served as excellent camouflage from aerial predators.  However, as the terrain began to change, brown skin against and increasingly white background no longer served to camouflage the lizards, making them easy prey.

What scientists believe happened is that a mutation, a change in the DNA in the gene that controls the color of pigment in the lizards’ skin occurred.  This mutation may have occurred before but would not have likely been retained in the lizard population because white skinned lizards in a brown desert would have been an easy target for predators.  However, a mutation that occurred when the sands were white would have produced white skinned lizards that blended in with their surroundings.  These lizards would have been more likely than the brown skinned lizards to survive to produce offspring.  These offspring would have the mutated gene for producing white skin.  Thus, more and more lizards with allele for white skin would be born because the white sands now “selected for” this allele.

In one species of lizard, the mutation was dominant meaning the trait produced by the gene required only one copy of the gene in order for the skin to be white. The gene on only one chromosome had to be present. In the other species of the lizard, the mutation was recessive.  In other words, in order for the skin to be white, both copies of the mutated gene (one on each chromosome) had to be present.

For 7^th grade LabLearner students, this real life example with the lizards epitomizes the concepts they have learned in the Adaptation and Genes and Proteins CELLs.  Evolution and natural selection occur because of changes in DNA.  Changes in DNA can result in differences in proteins and thus traits produced in an organism.  These types of changes can be seen by looking at the frequency of alleles for a trait.  If one trait is selected over another than the allele which produces that trait will appear more frequently in the population.  This is what Dr. Rosenblum and her colleagues would expect to see when comparing the alleles for skin color in lizards in the White Sands area to those same species of lizards in other areas of the world with a brown habitat.

For LabLearner students, the next question would be:

Which species of lizard would you expect to evolve faster, the ones with the dominant or recessive allele?

Based on what they know about modes of inheritance, those 7^th grades and even 5^th graders should predict—lizards with the dominant allele.  It’s what Dr. Rosenblum predicts and what she and her colleagues will continue to explore.

From her research and those of so many others we see that evolution and our study of it continues. What makes it different from Darwin’s time is that we now have the molecular tools to better understand how and why.

A Message from the President
Dr. Keith Verner

As all LabLearner students, teachers, and parents know, the LabLearner program does not assign a particular textbook. Since it is a 100% hands-on curriculum, most of the learning that occurs in LabLearner takes place in the lab, through first-hand observation. However, students obtain additional scientific information in their workbooks (Scientist Data Records), lecture notes, and NOW on the web.

The Internet is an exceptionally good source of information for LabLearner students. First, there is a nearly limitless number of excellent websites focused on essentially every science topic imaginable. Second, the form of information on the Internet is multimedia in nature. One may easily find live color video transmissions from the surface of Mars, virtual experiments involving essentially any physics principle, extensive photographs and video of every ecological biome on Earth, or a millimeter-by-millimeter trip through a real human body – all in color and with sound if necessary! In addition, students may download, store, and share absolutely any information they find with their teachers and peers. It is simply impossible to duplicate such a resource with any textbook.

It is also important to consider that the form of information available on the Internet – its multimedia, interactive nature – plays directly into the hands of K-8 LabLearner students. This is the form of information that they are brought up with and will need to use every day in the future, regardless of where they go to school, college, or where their careers ultimately take them. How many of us adults, in our professional work, find ourselves on the phone looking at the same website as the person we are talking to. How many times have we ended the discussion with something like “OK, I’ve just sent you the link.” or “I’ll print that for the staff meeting tomorrow?” LabLearner students can use the Internet exactly the same way… it is the future.

Finally, it is easy to find scientific websites directed at virtually any age/grade level. For example, if one types in – heat transfer eighth grade – into Google, over 32,000 sites appear, while if only – heat transfer – is typed in, over 36,000,000 hits are obtained! It is amazing how quickly information can be filtered on the web. On the other hand, it is still a daunting task for LabLearner students, teachers, or parents to pick the most relevant of these sites to relate to specific LabLearner curriculum CELLs. Therefore, LabLearner has done this for them. Our new LabLearnerLinks website provides from three to five relevant, quality websites for each curriculum CELL. It’s that simple.

It is our hope that LabLearnerLinks will be the beginning of a lifelong relationship between the search for scientific knowledge and the Internet, for all of our students, their teachers, and parents.