Archimedes-lab.org
Archimedes-lab.org is an edutainment website developed and maintained by Gianni A. Sarcone and Marie-Jo Waeber. In the words of Gianni Sarcone and Marie-Jo Waeber the Archimedes’ Lab was founded with a vision of: * promoting the puzzle as an educational aid useful for training, socialization and communication. Games and puzzles can increase players' self confidence in their ability to apply knowledge to new situation. In the same way, players will learn the skills of collaborating, managing emotions, and resolving conflicts in groups;
- developing hands-on activities and puzzles that are engaging, affordable, and easy-to-use;
- creating new experiential-based teaching methods involving games and puzzles for teaching Mathematics and Science;
- encouraging integrated approaches to thinking and learning. Integrated approaches enable students to investigate a specific subject using many forms of knowledge and expression, by combining critical thinking, practical skills and topics from other subjects and by connecting the studied subject to their own lives and environment;
- fostering contacts and collaboration among puzzle enthusiasts, and persons or industries involved in education and entertainment world-wide.
The site has won several significant awards from scientific and educational publications, including a Scientific American Web Award in 2003, the NCTM (National Council of Teacher of Mathematics) Webby, and a mention in Merlot, the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online teaching.
Archimedes’ Lab site is divided into six major categories or indexes: puzzles and tests, optical illusions, custom puzzles, teachers resources, curiosities, art and language, and is designed for puzzle enthusiasts, teachers, children and adults alike, and anyone else curious about mathematics, popular science and visual perception.