Several goals have priority as part of the general education program, namely, students' skills in the areas of writing, reading, mathematics, sciences, and critical thinking, the latter at least insofar as it relates to how one evaluates evidence. The structure, reasoning, and community nature of the scientific enterprise have within them convincing ways to develop these essential skills. There are several considerations that need to be addressed in any decision about laboratories.
Experimental science is a community activity.
It is rare in the real world that any experiments are done alone. The more usual events are multi-person collaborations that involve planning, gathering materials, executing, interpreting the ranges of uncertainties and the limits of the data, stating the meaning of the results, and sharing all of it for validation by a wider community of interested people. Studentsindeed, anyone up to and including scientists themselveslearn better the meaning and limits of scientific models and concepts by having experience with the measurements, or from close contact with actual experimental groups. Structured, guided experience with feedback is valuable in the learning of any skill, as has been discovered in foreign language groups, piano and dance practice, written composition, and experimental measurements and their interpretation. It is highly improbable that most students can learn to these skills by reading a textbook or listening to a lecture.