The school Lykeio Aradippou in Cyprus (Go-Lab pilot school since 2014) successfully participated in the competition “Students in Research field” under the cooperation of the Centre of Educational Research and Evaluation, the Research Promotion Foundation, and the University of Cyprus. Their submission was an implementation in the context of Go-Lab: two students and two teachers of the school collaborated with the National Coordinators of Go-Lab in Cyprus designing and implementing a research plan. There, they investigated the added value of virtual experimentation on students’ motivation and attitudes. Their submission made it to the third place!

Two groups of tenth grade students took part in the implementation, an experimental group and a control group. Students in the experimental group completed three Go-Lab Inquiry Learning Spaces about the electrical circuits (Types of circuits, Electric current measurements and Ohm’s law). The students in the control group completed an analogous sequence of learning activities centered on real laboratory equipment.

Both groups of students already had high motivation and positive attitudes for STEM education before the implementation begun. However, an important outcome was that students in the control group needed almost three didactic hours more to complete all the activities, as compared to those who worked with the ILSs of Go-Lab.

The student inquiry was presented on May 15, 2016 by the two students who participated in the competition. The submission was and evaluated by a scientific committee of three experts. The award ceremony of the winners was held on 7^th of June, 2016.

The competition “Students in Research field” has been held in Cyprus since 2001 and is one of the actions in the context of the “Development of Research and Innovative Culture” project. The aim of the project was the involvement of students and their teachers in authentic research practices.