A collaboratory is the logical generalization of the laboratory in the age of telecomputing. It unites scientists to do science together, even if apart in space and time. A collaboratory for education unites faculty, students, and scientists to work together to learn science by doing science. A collaboratory for undergraduate education will give faculty and students access to science resources - instruments, experts, and information - for instruction and research, and is the logical generalization of the student laboratory for colleges and universities. A consortium of higher education institutions - the Northwest Educational Collaboratory Consortium (NECC) - and the Environmental & Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) will follow a recent planning workshop The EMSL-Collaboratory in the Undergraduate Classroom with a week-long, in-depth, exploratory workshop for NECC faculty and EMSL scientists, Exploration of an EMSL-Collaboratory for Undergraduate Science Education at the EMSL in September 1996. This workshop is to explore the feasibility of a full-scale, model development project.
