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• Is the above activity a lab activity?
− Yes, it is a lab because it involves query, experience, activity, learning,
knowledge construction.
− It is not a lab because we did not use computers; learners do not
work with any mediator and therefore it is impossible to really check
[hypothesis].
− It is a lab since a lab is everything that is based on active learning
and not on teacher presentation, and it also includes teacher-students
discourse.
− A lab is a place to check hypothesis and something should be provided
to the learners to check whether they understood correctly; therefore,
this worksheet is not a lab-based activity.
• What is a good lab-based lesson?
− A good lab integrates colors, shapes, sounds, and motion.
− If the lab-based lesson is implemented well, the teacher is unemployed.
− In a good lab-based lesson, students succeed learning computer science
ideas.
− In a good lab-based lesson, pupils teach pupils.
− In a good lab-based lesson, pupils enjoy, are busy, concentrated, and
have high spirits.
− It is a good lab-based lesson, when a pupil says “now I got it.”
− It is a good lab-based lesson, when a weak pupil has bright eyes.
− In a good lab-based lesson, excellent pupils are well challenged.
− In a good lab-based lesson, weak pupils are well challenged.
− In a good lab-based lesson, pupils invent solutions.
As can be observed, even though this activity focuses on a “dry” lab, it increases
the teachers' awareness to key terms of lab-based learning, such as, inquiry,
experiment, checking hypothesis, learning, and knowledge construction.
8.3
Lab-First Approach
As mentioned, the computer lab can be viewed as a place in which experiments are car-
ried out, hypotheses are checked, and conclusions are derived following an experimental
process. In this context, activities, such as checking program correctness and program
behavior with different inputs, are carried out in the computer lab on a regular basis.
In this section, we further pursue this perspective and examine the lab-first peda-
gogical approach which implements the constructivist approach and demonstrates
an active-based learning teaching strategy (see Chap. 2). According to the lab-first
approach, learners explore first a computer science topic in the computer lab, and
after they gain some experience with the said topic, and based on this experience,
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