As part of the TheDexterLab project, a set of diverse resources for implementing different scientific experimentation protocols has been designed and made available to the entire community within this wiki - our virtual laboratory - that you are starting to explore! These resources include:
<aside> 🔬 The development of scientific experimentation protocols for implementing investigative activities in your classroom or project mode.
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Within TheDexterLab, a protocol refers to a set of pre-established actions or procedures used in the design and execution of scientific experiments or studies. The objective of creating protocols is to normalize procedural methods, which ensures that results can be successfully reproduced by other people. These protocols include not only detailed procedures, equipment, and instruments used, but also learning or study objectives, instructions regarding proposed or chosen devices, safety precautions, recommended operational conditions, and troubleshooting tips.
<aside> 🧑💻 The development of simulation tools with the objective of stimulating learners' digital programming skills.
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The complete implementation of a TheDexterLab protocol with all your students/participants in a classroom or workshop can require a lot of material and time. With the simulator available on the MakeCode platform, students can start working independently, preparing programs, checking their operation, and correcting them if necessary. It is a way for them to work, either from the classroom or asynchronously at home, at an individual level, on the sequence covered by the protocol. They can approach the concepts covered by the protocol in an exploratory scientific approach and thus develop their critical thinking and key 21st-century skills. After this step, they will be able to concretely implement the experiment, once all programs are ready, in a simpler and more efficient way in real life, to observe the phenomenon they have approached thanks to the simulation.
<aside> 🎛️ A list of sensors allowing for scientific experimentation through observation and investigation, and studying a phenomenon by collecting data.
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Algorithmics and coding practices can be highly relevant for addressing the challenges of our current society. Indeed, a better understanding of the environment around us is linked to the availability and comparison of datasets related to physical, environmental, chemical, or ecosystem concepts, for example, and their constitution using sensors and programming is a powerful activity for students, allowing them to concretely understand STEAM subjects.
One of the most interesting aspects of the TheDexterLab project is that it is completely free! You do not have to pay a single penny to access the activities or resources available in our wiki. All the resources and activities available and created by the TheDexterLab project are under a Creative Commons license. This means that you can not only access them for free, but also reuse and modify them according to your needs. Teachers, educators, parents, and associations thus have the possibility to customize children's learning experience and make it more attractive and meaningful, adapted to everyone's needs and contexts.
Therefore, we encourage you to use these resources as a source of inspiration to create your own learning sequences or activities, and to share them with the STEAM community! When you are proud of your achievements, do not hesitate to share them with us so that we can promote them to our audience via our wiki. You can write to us at [email protected] or contact our mentors: Find help!