About

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What is Farlabs?

FARLabs (www.FARLabs.edu.au) provides high school teachers and students with online access to scientific equipment for use in pre-prepared, curriculum-relevant, practical experiments. The platform consists of three main components:

the equipment,
the website portal,
and the teaching materials.

Teachers and students access the equipment via the website portal. Instruction and background knowledge are provided by the teaching materials. All of the experiments have been aligned with both the middle school years (7-10) and VCE curriculums, as well as the Australian national science curriculum. The curriculum map is available in the ‘For Teachers’ section of the FARLabs.edu.au website. Four self-contained laboratory activities are currently available. They cover three main themes: Nuclear, Environment and Structure. All content and activities are laid out using the 5E instructional model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate]. We have found that structuring the content within a recognisable learning framework reduces prep-time for teachers, and allows students to become quickly immersed in the content.

What are the goals of Farlabs?

Through the establishment of a virtual laboratory network, this project will bring state-of-the-art facilities and world-class research of Australia’s Universities directly into schools, to engage high-school students with science and maths nationally. Our primary goals include:

The development of new laboratory projects with high-school access via our e-Virtual laboratory targeted at secondary years 7-12 which are fully integrated with our state-wide curriculum. Once the program is available nationally we will consider the curriculum of other states, and the impending national curriculum.
The establishment of a website (including discussion forums) summarising the virtual experiences available, and including downloadable teaching materials and technical notes. This will allow students and teachers to choose a level of engagement appropriate for their needs and abilities.
Promotion, demonstration, and explanation of the La Trobe e-lab project at schools within our local catchment areas (including regional schools near the Bendigo campus). This will be coordinated through the Quantum Victoria Physical Sciences cluster node.
The expansion of the virtual lab project to other subject areas such as Agriculture and Molecular Sciences and to other Universities and expansion of project to a national level. This will build on existing networks, such as the Australian Institute of Physics and the Innovative Research Universities consortium.

Who is behind Farlabs?

FARLabs is led by the Department of Physics at La Trobe University in collaboration with James Cook University, Curtin University, Quantum Victoria, the Australian Synchrotron and V3 Alliance. Register for free at www.farlabs.edu.au to use the service. Contact us at latrobefarlabs@gmail.com. FARLabs is supported by the Department of Education as an Australian Maths and Science Partnership Program (AMSPP) priority project.