by Patricia Dung, Target Science- LAEP/LAUSD
Telecommunications connect people across space and time. It allows access to information previously available only to scientists. It assists in broadening the scientific community to include science educators and students. In the science classroom, telecommunications can be used in the following ways:
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1. Factual Information- Students and teachers access factual text on line- text material and primary and secondary articles usually through the World Wide Web.
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a. Student reads and summarizes/takes notes or answers questions.
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Examples: This Dynamic Earth--Contents [USGS]
b. Teacher or students get background information for science investigations and other science activities/lessons.
Mapping Volcanic and Earthquake Activity
c. Students use information to write reports and term papers.
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2. Guided Web Browsing- Teacher designed activity taking students to specific web sites on a particular topic and asking them guided questions. Students go to web sites, find information to answer conceptual questions
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Example: Martha, who?
3. Resource Sharing- Teachers sharing/getting teaching strategies, resources, and other information with other science educators usually in newsgroups.
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Example: lalc.smart.targetscience.astronomy newsgroup on LALCNet
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4. Student Activities- Students and teachers access classroom or field activities on-line either from providers on the web or from other teachers in newsgroups.
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Examples: Sunrise...Sunset Curriculum- LALCNet-
http://www.laep.org/target/smart/Sunrise/sunhome.html
National Wildlife Federation- Ranger Rick Actvities
Problem Sets- http://www.immex.ucla.edu/
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5. Virtual Field Expeditions- Students go on virtual field expeditions, get data and other information by accessing findings and daily logs of researchers in the field through the www. Sometimes students can change variables or email researcher.
- Example: Virtual Antarctica Expedition: http://www.terraquest.com/
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6. Ask a Scientist- Students pose own questions to scientists/engineers/environmentalists (informal interviews, ask a scientist questions, etc) through email.
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Examples: Internet in the Classroom- Live from Antarctica- Q &A - Directions in submitting questions + archive of past questions
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/livefrom/livefrom.html
On Assignment: Ecuador- email questions to Christian Kallen, TerraQuest Project Director in the field. http://www.terraquest.com/
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7. Data On-line- Secondary data for science investigations-
Example: Students get earthquake data on-line from a web or gopher site over a period of time and plot points on a world map. They see patterns and relationships of earthquakes to geographic location, topography and location of major faults.
8. Collaborative Investigations/Research- Students do collaborative interactive research projects with others not in same location and reporting data and results. e.g. comparing air quality with teachers/students in other geographic locations.
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Application
a. Students acquire primary data and communicate and exchange data with others, draw conclusions for a wider area than local class or school site.
Examples: The Shadow Knows lesson in Sunrise..Sunset Curriculum http://www.laep.org/target/smart/Sunrise/sunhome.html
River Investigations
water quality newsgroup- lalc.smart.targetscience.river.water
Synthesis
b. Students design own experiment to conduct and invites others on the
net to join in.
Examples: The Telescopes in Education is an interesting secondary
project on the Internet. Student direct a 20 inch telescope at Mt. Wilson
and take CCD photos. http://www.mtwilson.edu
Hilites listserv- The HILITES projects list is a service of the Global
SchoolNet Foundation.http://www.gsn.org/project/index.html
Post your project announcements to hilites@gsn.org.
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9. Assessment
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a. Student Critiques- Students comments on the work of others-
b. Teachers assess student work on-line.
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10. Issues Discussion/Position Papers- Students discuss issues in science (e.g. environmental issues " How should the land near the LA River (Taylor Railroad Yard) be developed?"; genetic issues "Should testing of drugs include only white males?).
These are usually conducted in newsgroups or by group mail lists.
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11. Student/Teacher Products- Students/teachers publish writings/multi-media
products/projects on the web and in newsgroups.
Examples: LA River virtual tour- http://www.laep.org/target/units/river/tour/index.html
Sunrise View from Here- http://www.laep.org/target/smart/Sunrise/sunhome.html