K-16 Educator Support for Teaching Earth and Space Sciences Posters
Presiding: P A Cooper, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii; K Kaiser-Holscott, NASA CORE, Lorain County Joint Vocational School
ED13F-01 1330h
Earth Science Data and Applications for K-16 Education from the NASA Langley Atmospheric Science Data Center
NASA's Science Mission Directorate aims to stimulate public interest in Earth system science and to encourage young scholars to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. NASA's Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) at Langley Research Center houses over 700 data sets related to Earth's radiation budget, clouds, aerosols and tropospheric chemistry that are being produced to increase academic understanding of the natural and anthropogenic perturbations that influence global climate change. However, barriers still exist in the use of these actual satellite observations by educators in the classroom to supplement the educational process. Thus, NASA is sponsoring the "Mentoring and inquirY using NASA Data on Atmospheric and earth science for Teachers and Amateurs" (MY NASA DATA) project to systematically support educational activities by reducing the ASDC data holdings to `microsets' that can be easily accessible and explored by the K-16 educators and students. The microsets are available via Web site (http://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov) with associated lesson plans, computer tools, data information pages, and a science glossary. A MY NASA DATA Live Access Server (LAS) has been populated with ASDC data such that users can create custom microsets online for desired time series, parameters and geographical regions. The LAS interface is suitable for novice to advanced users, teachers or students. The microsets may be visual representations of data or text output for spreadsheet analysis. Currently, over 148 parameters from the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES), Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), Surface Radiation Budget (SRB), Tropospheric Ozone Residual (TOR) and the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) are available and provide important information on clouds, fluxes and cycles in the Earth system. Additionally, a MY NASA DATA OPeNDAP server has been established to facilitate file transfer of ASDC data for other client applications such as MATLAB, GrADS, and IDV. OPeNDAP has become a very popular alternative for data access especially at the university research level with over 375 OPeNDAP-accessible data sets registered nationally. Teacher workshops will be held each summer for five years to help teachers learn about incorporating NASA microsets in their curriculum. The next MY NASA DATA teacher workshop will be held at Langley Research Center July 25-29, 2005. Workshop participants will create microsets and lesson plans that they believe will help their students understand Earth system concepts. These lesson plans will be reviewed and shared online as user-contributed content.
http://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov
ED13F-02 1330h
NASA CORE - A Worldwide Distribution Center for Educational Materials.
The Lorain County Joint Vocational School District (JVS) administers NASA's Central Operation of Resources for Educators (CORE) for the purpose of: A. Operating a mail order service to supply educators around the world with NASA's educational materials; B. Servicing NASA Education Programs/Projects with NASA's educational materials; C. Supporting the NASA Educator Resource Center Network with technology resources for the next generation of ERC. D. Support NASA's mission to inspire the next generation of explorers...as only NASA can; E. Inspire and motivate students to pursue careers in geography, science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This is accomplished by the continued operation of a central site that educators can contact to obtain information about NASA educational programs and research; obtain NASA educational publications and media; and receive technical support for NASA multimedia materials. In addition CORE coordinates the efforts of the 67 NASA Educator Resource Centers to establish a more effective network to serve educators. CORE directly supports part of NASA's core mission, To Inspire the Next Generation of Explorers.as only NASA can. CORE inspires and motivates students to pursue careers in geography, science, technology, engineering and mathematics by providing educators with exciting and NASA-unique educational material to enhance the students' learning experience. CORE is located at the Lorain County Joint Vocational School (JVS) in Oberlin, Ohio. Students at the JVS assist with the daily operations of CORE. This assistance provides the students with valuable vocational training opportunities and helps the JVS reduce the amount of funding needed to operate CORE. CORE has vast experience in the dissemination of NASA educational materials as well as a network of NASA Education Resource Centers who distribute NASA materials to secondary and post-secondary schools and universities, informal educators, and other interested individuals and organizations. CORE would be a valuable resource for the distribution of Earth and Space Science products presented to the Joint Assembly.
http://core.nasa.gov
ED13F-03 1330h
Student Interactives--A new Tool for Exploring Science.
Science NetLinks (SNL), a national program that provides online teacher resources created by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), has proven to be a leader among educational resource providers in bringing free, high-quality, grade-appropriate materials to the national teaching community in a format that facilitates classroom integration. Now in its ninth year on the Web, Science NetLinks is part of the MarcoPolo Consortium of Web sites and associated state-based training initiatives that help teachers integrate Internet content into the classroom. SNL is a national presence in the K-12 science education community serving over 700,000 teachers each year, who visit the site at least three times a month. SNL features: High-quality, innovative, original lesson plans aligned to Project 2061 Benchmarks for Science Literacy, Original Internet-based interactives and learning challenges, Reviewed Web resources and demonstrations, Award winning, 60-second audio news features (Science Updates). Science NetLinks has an expansive and growing library of this educational material, aligned and sortable by grade band or benchmark. The program currently offers over 500 lessons, covering 72% of the Benchmarks for Science Literacy content areas in grades K-12. Over the past several years, there has been a strong movement to create online resources that support earth and space science education. Funding for various online educational materials has been available from many sources and has produced a variety of useful products for the education community. Teachers, through the Internet, potentially have access to thousands of activities, lessons and multimedia interactive applications for use in the classroom. But, with so many resources available, it is increasingly more difficult for educators to locate quality resources that are aligned to standards and learning goals. To ensure that the education community utilizes the resources, the material must conform to a format that allows easy understanding, evaluation and integration. Science NetLinks' material has been proven to satisfy these criteria and serve thousands of teachers every year. All online interactive materials that are created by AAAS are aligned to AAAS Project 2061 Benchmarks, which mirror National Science Standards, and are developed based on a rigorous set of criteria. For the purpose of this forum we will provide an overview that explains the need for more of these materials in the earth and space education, a review of the criteria for creating these materials and show examples of online materials created by AAAS that support earth and space science.
ED13F-04 1330h
The Climate Change Collection: A Case Study on Digital Library Collection Review and the Integration of Research, Education and Evaluation
Designed as an pilot project to assess the scientific and pedagogical quality of selected digital resources in the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE), the Climate Change Collection is thematic collection of digital resources relating to the topic of global climate change. Developed through the collaborative efforts of an interdisciplinary review team made up of professionals from the fields of climate research, geoscience education, cognitive psychology, and evaluation, the findings of the project suggest that the user needs of the reviewers should be considered in any review process, that there is inherent value in the collaboration of scientists, teachers and related fields in determining the quality of particular resources, and that the process of preparing for and conducting such reviews and annotations is time-consuming and challenging. Drawing from the experience of prior collection development efforts associated with DLESE, including the Community Review System and the Digital Water Education Library, the Climate Change Collection was developed during the Fall of 2004 and Winter of 2005. Through a series of monthly meetings with the review team facilitated by the Principal Investigator acting as Editor for the collection, and assisted by an online workspace known as a SWIKI, the Climate Change Collection was designed as an experiment in streamlined collection development that may help inform future digital library review and collection-building efforts. The initial meetings focused on training the reviewers, setting context for the review process, and discussing the perspectives of the various participants in the review team. Each participant received a stipend for their involvement in the process. A rubric "scorecard" was developed, tested, and fine-tuned by the review team with a focus primarily on scientific accuracy and the potential for effective use in the classroom. Specific concepts relating to aspects of natural climate variability and human impacts on the climate system were examined, with existing resources cataloged within DLESE being the primary materials reviewed. Each complete "scorecard" review, is posted on the web, and is accessible through a summary review that highlights the overall rating from the reviewers and key annotations of the reviewers, including suggestions on classroom use of the resource.