Students were expected to spend about ten hours outside of lab working on the project as a team. Most students view lab as a block of time set aside once a week to perform an experiment. Very few students make the connection that laboratory investigations are designed to expose them to scientific concepts, scientific processes, critical thinking, and serve as a reinforcement for material presented in lecture. Instead of practicing science only in the laboratory, students will practice science with others outside the college community. Using Hypertext Markup Language, student groups will create web pages containing at least five hyperlinks and three images.
Most courses require some form of writing or a presentation of a topic related to the course.
Conducting a 'live' presentation via video camera will add an interactive dimension to the presentation. The project will provide students on both college and high school levels to engage in activities such as observation, critical thinking, collection and analysis of data, problem solving, reasoning, and the development of scientific concepts. Traditional direct instruction relies heavily on extrinsic motivation. This project sets the stage for intrinsic motivation by creating the opportunity for students to build relationships with each other and build relationships with those outside the college community. During the first lab session, students will be placed in teams of five.