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"Scientiifc community labs (SCL) are designed to give students the experience of participating in a model of a realistic scientific community at an early stage in their scientific training. In traditional labs, students often receive very detailed guidance, allowing them to complete the lab and get a reasonable result even if they have no understanding of what is being done or why. Traditional labs often appear to the students to be set up for the purpose of "demonstrating the truth of the theory you were taught in lecture and read about in the text." This can have the unfortunate side effect of developing an epistemological misconception -- the idea that science largely develops by testing someone's arbitrary made up hypotheses. The firm base for science that is developed through extensive observation and experiment can be missed."
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