The Gulf of Maine Research Institute's (GMRI) educational program, LabVenture, for Maine's 5th and 6th grade students is a half-day, interactive, multi-media science program that takes place at GMRI in Portland, Maine. The supporting website is designed to extend the students' and educators' LabVenture experience through providing online resources such as classroom lesson plans and student websites.
GMRI strives to provide a safe place for students to explore science through access to personal data collected during their visit, ongoing conversations about science, and experiences designed for their classroom and schoolyard.
As teachers register their students for LabVenture, they will be entering students’ first and last names and their grade level on an online registration form. This form will only be accessible by the teacher and GMRI education and learning research staff. Prior to participating in LabVenture students must have a permission form (provided from GMRI to the teacher) signed by a parent or guardian.
Throughout GMRI's LabVenture program, students will be completing scientific investigations at LabVenture stations. During these investigations, students will be taking team photographs, recording hypothesis and conclusion videos, and taking digital photographs.
All of this digital content collected by the students will be saved to their own team websites. Any inappropriate content discovered by staff will be deleted. Each student's website will only be accessible by them, their teammates, their teachers, and GMRI education staff. By entering their team codes that they receive after their visit, students will have the ability to view the data collected during their visit to GMRI.
These student websites are meant to provide students with a useful and personal record of their experience at GMRI's LabVenture program. These websites can also be used by educators to dive deeper into content areas explored throughout the program as indicated in online classroom lesson plans.