The mobile laboratory consists of a van carrying everything needed to rapidly set up a teaching lab at any school. It contains tables, standard laboratory equipment, and a data projector used to introduce experiments. Each day we will bring different experiments to different schools, and over the course of a year every student will get the chance to carry out experiments encompassing the breadth of modern science.
TASTE aims to achieve three things with every practical science session we provide: to illustrate, to instruct and to inspire.
Illustrate the theory
Empirical data is what makes a scientific theory into a scientific fact. With the help of TASTE, students perform experiments which use and test the theories they are taught on a blackboard. The laboratory work complements the theory: it makes subjects which can otherwise be abstract and inconsequential into concrete reality. It makes a theory memorable, and comprehensible, to see it in the flesh.
Instruct in science
It is possible to learn a great deal of scientific knowledge by looking at a blackboard. But to learn how to do science you have to get your hands dirty. There are two components to the instruction TASTE provides. The first is mundane but important; students learn laboratory techniques. These skills will be useful in many future careers – from cooking to industry and IT.
However the key skill we teach is how to think like a scientist. Students themselves interpret the data at every step of each experiment, with demonstrators available to help when they have difficulties. They learn how to design an experiment, designing protocols with correct controls to test a hypothesis. These analytical skills will stand them in very good stead in later life.
Inspire
A key goal of TASTE is to demonstrate that science is fun. If you ask any adult in the UK to remember a science lesson they will describe dissecting a frog in biology, a Geiger counter clicking away in physics or the bubbling flasks of a chemistry lab. Students need a laboratory to get a sense of what science is really like – an exciting practical discipline, constantly updated as new experimental data arises. We hope that those that perform experiments with TASTE will gain a sense of the importance and power of science in the modern world and that they will be more likely to pursue careers in science, or in other fields which require analytical skills.