I will present the results of revitalization of the subject called Laboratory skills which is the first and second year subject at our Physics Department. The process of gradual revitalization took five years. The subject was originally aimed at acquiring basic practical skills (such as handling the measuring equipment and workshop tools, making a simple electronic circuits, using CAD programs etc). The students were led through the sequence of separate units, where each unit introduced a particular skill.

Our main goal has been to modify the traditional laboratory activities into a new form that will give students also transferable skills (such as working in a team, managing time and resources, communicating, using IT) and promote active learning. The teams of typically eight students are given a specific project that should be completed in three weeks (three hours per week) and the results presented in the form of the web page on the Internet (after short tutorial on web page report design). Our experiences show that the short time limit for the task completion and the requirement to present the results in the form of a web page resulted in increased efficiency of the teamwork and higher motivation. The prerequisite for this is the careful choice of the open-ended problems that are technically simple, involve 'gentle' physics and are attractive. The project leaders and the originators of many project ideas are also postgraduate students on Physics Education course that were previously instructed how to guide the practical teamwork. In this way the project-based laboratory plays several roles in the process of future physics teachers training.