A while back, when there was after-school education money, I was interested in creating labs for students to go out and measure things and reduce the data in class/lab and/or do so at home with a live linux distro or remotely on a class server.

The idea was to take real measurements and use open source tools, this being their introduction to them, to analyze.

Fact is that most run cross-platform, but are at last glance, included in most linux distros other than the smallest ones. Knoppix was being updated regularly at the time and was my choice. If it ran at all, it was easier than downloading those apps. Boot and run. (or run remotely)

That program (i.e. the money) wound down. Computers AND exercise. If it involved trips to the marsh, a chance to photograph some shorebirds, as well.

not sure if it involved actually building simple instruments, though that would have been fun. I was always intrigued by the "Amateur Scientist" sections in old Sci-Am magazines.

Education is really interesting, because everything is new to kids, and people in this community know that growth and real innovation come from facing new, undocumented, challenges and "finding a way". I tried to automate (some but not all) tasks via scripts rather than one-off tinkering, and what I gained was skill at scripting, especially when "Mr. Internet" didn't have a ready-made solution ...

for the next unknown challenge.