The Go-Lab Project (Global Online Science Labs for Inquiry Learning at School) is a European collaborative project co-funded by the European Commission (Seventh Framework Programme) and uniting 19 organisations from twelve countries. Go-Lab concentrates on providing access to online laboratories in order to enrich classroom experience in schools as well as learning activities out-of-class. The overall aim of the Go-Lab Project is to provide students an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in science by conducting experiments using modern laboratory equipment by themselves, deepen their knowledge in fundamental sciences, and to motivate them for making scientific carrier in the future.
Go-Lab creates an infrastructure (the Go-Lab Portal) to provide access to a set of online labs from worldwide renowned research organizations, such as European Space Agency (ESA, the Netherlands), European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN, Switzerland), Núcleo Interactivo de Astronomia (NUCLIO, Portugal), as well as multiple universities and institutions. These online labs can be used by universities, schools, instructors, students and lifelong learners to extend regular learning activities with scientific experiments that can be conducted not only by teachers as a demonstration, but also by students themselves giving them real experience of scientific work.
To support pedagogical and methodological aspects of this approach, the Go-Lab Portal will include a social network for teachers allowing them sharing and discussing their experiences and providing mutual support. Further, Go-Lab will support community of teachers interested in using online labs in their classes by offering workshops introducing the use of online virtual experimentations and remote laboratories as well as inquiry-based science teaching techniques. This will allow instructors to upgrade their current teaching practices and get their students engaged in science topics by undertaking active guided experimentation carried out on top-level scientific facilities.