CACOSI(Creating A Culture Of Scientific Inquiry) is providing an educational experience for minority, primarily Native American, middle and high school students in which they explore the environment surrounding them from historical, cultural, and scientific perspectives. Students are conducting long-term investigations and monitoring the Earth system in and around the tribal lands and the neighboring Northern New Mexico environs. The student and teachers are learning about Earth processes through experimentation in the classroom throughout the school year and during a weeklong summer science camp with professional Earth and environmental scientists.
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Café Scientifique is a popular program that brings teenagers from all walks of life together to explore, discuss, and debate the latest ideas in science and technology. Stimulating conversations with experts working on the cutting-edge of scientific research take place in a social setting. It is a place where all teens are welcome and ideas are shared.
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We created four modules that use Geographic Information Systems to investigate geological, atmospheric, and anthropogenic hazards. Our pedagogical model utilizes rich scientific data sets of contemporary events and cutting-edge computer technology to engage students in their investigations of hazards and their effects on society. Students can investigate the 1994 Northridge, California earthquake, recent Midwestern tornado outbreaks, tsunami hazards in the Pacific Northwest and Hurricane Katrina.
This built on the SAGUARO Project through which we developed, field-tested, evaluated, and published (in summer 2002) three curriculum modules that are being used by introductory-level students in over 55 two- and four-year colleges and universities. A fourth module was published in spring 2004. Our design philosophy of teaching with GIS - not about GIS - reflects our research on how students learn with GIS technology. As students use GIS to investigate and visualize data, they develop critical problem solving and GIS skills. Our experience shows that case studies like those proposed here can be used successfully in large-lecture courses as homework, laboratory sessions, and in distance learning environments.
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The DLESE Project Office is responsible for leading community discussions surrounding the growth of the DLESE digital collection, for coordinating the development of the array of services that will support the creation of exemplary resources and their use in enhancing geoscience education, and for leading the community-building activities of the core service groups.
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The SAGUARO (pronounced "sah-wah-roh") project (Science and GIS: Unlocking Analysis and Research Opportunities) grew out of our belief that it was easier and more engaging to learn GIS skills while investigating a scientific problem than mastering GIS skills and then tackling a scientific investigation. This Teach with GIS rather than Teach about GIS approach has been very successful in getting novice GIS users (both the instructors and their students) to explore current problems and issues in Earth system science using real data and powerful analysis tools. As an outcome, most students develop sufficient GIS skills to pursue their own investigations within or as an extension of the prepared curriculum.
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Our seismology outreach program serves teachers across the country and around the world using seismic instruments or real-time seismic data in K-16 classrooms. We provide a website with answers to frequently asked questions, as well as telephone and electronic mail support. Additionally, our site includes tools to share seismic data in real-time, classroom activities, data on historical events, and technical support documents for seismic instruments. Our hope is to bridge the gap between science classrooms to create an international educational seismic network.
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In a changing climate, watershed disturbances such as drought, large-scale wildfires, and extreme rainfall patterns are on the rise, particularly in the southwestern U.S. Yet, at high-school grade levels, hydrology and watershed science get minimal coverage in classrooms. To address this situation, we developed a set of GIS-based student investigations on the affect of natural and human-induced disturbances on watershed hydrology.
The first unit of the module encourages students to explore the environments and vulnerabilities of three watersheds situated in different environments and geographical locations in the U.S. One such watershed is the small, snowmelt-dominated Loch Vale watershed, situated within the Big Thompson watershed in the Mississippi Basin. Students can discover the snow-covered terrain, vegetation, glaciers and tarns, alpine lakes, and creeks using Google Earth, imported GIS layers, and photographs linked to the images. In this way, Google Earth acts as a "telescope", allowing students to examine the watersheds from a global and national perspective, then narrowing the scale to the small-watershed and pictorial perspectives. Students also explore a semi-arid watershed in the Colorado River basin and a humid, agricultural watershed in the Great Lakes region using these tools.
The case history, comprising the second unit of the learning module, focuses on the 2003 Aspen Fire in southern Arizona. The large-scale Aspen wildfire and subsequent massive debris flows caused watershed instability in the Sabino Canyon watershed. We structured these investigations around recent hydrologic, geologic, and fire data collected by USGS, USFS, and University of Arizona scientists. The investigations encourage students to use Google Earth and MyWorld GIS to learn about the watersheds of the Santa Catalina Mountains in southern Arizona.
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SES staff were actively involved in organizing community workshops to support development and initial implementation of this plan.
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SES staff were actively involved in organizing community workshops to support development and initial implementation of this plan.
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