Issues Awareness
In this activity, students will conduct a survey to identify the environmental issues (in their community, their country and the world) for which people are concerned. They will tally and graph the results. Also, students will discuss how surveys are important when engineers make decisions about environmental issues.
Using Interaction Analysis to reveal Self-Regulated
Learning in Virtual Communities
Aim of this paper is to analyse whether Interaction Analysis can help
investigate the practice and development of Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) in Virtual Learning Communities (VLC). Interaction analysis is increasingly used to study learning dynamics within online activities. It proceeds by searching expressions that reveal the aspects under study in the written messages exchanged by the learners. To this end, we devised and classified a number of indicators suggesting the existence of self-re
Fossil Fondue
To understand how fossils are formed, students model the process of fossilization by making fossils using small toy figures and melted chocolate. They extend their knowledge to the many ways that engineers aid in the study of fossils, including the development of tools and technologies for determining the physical and chemical properties of fossilized organisms, and how those properties tell a story of our changing world.
Internet Scout Project
Ask ERIC, or the Educational Resources Information Center, is a federally funded project within the Department of Education that hopes to "provide education information to teachers, librarians, counselors, administrators, parents, and anyone interested in education throughout the United States and the world." This portion of the site provides lesson plans in twenty-three science subjects, geared for students from K-12. Clearly and attractively presented, each lesson plan gives a suggested grade
Internet Scout Project
"The Alliance to Save Energy promotes energy efficiency worldwide to achieve a healthier economy, a cleaner environment, and greater energy security." Consumers can find tips on how to save money and reduce pollution. The website discusses how Alliance to Save Energy is working with many countries all over the world to increase their energy efficiency and improve their water services. Users can receive the latest news on a variety of energy and environmental issues. Educators can learn about All
Internet Scout Project
This issue of Topic in Depth explores some of the resources available online regarding school finance. The first article from the RAND Review (1) discusses the challenges involved in meeting the ambitious goals established by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and the need to develop a school accountability system that can provide "the incentives and resources that the schools really need to help all students meet the state performance standards." In the second article (2), Linda Darling-Hammon
Regulative support during inquiry learning with
simulations and modeling
Many factors impact learning; the environment and resources available, the domain, how much prior-knowledge a student has, and how well they make use of their metacognitive skills, all of these factors impact new knowledge creation. The series of studies described in this dissertation focuses on the latter; i.e. the metacognitive skillfulness of students. Known collectively as self-regulation, planning, monitoring, and evaluation, when applied appropriately will enhance learning. Students who m
Internet Scout Project
Carried by Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) of Columbia University, the Petrological Database of the Ocean Floor is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research project that includes over 30,000 samples and over 700,000 chemical values from oceanic stations throughout the world. Samples can be searched by location, expedition name, ship name, sample characteristics, reference, or by chemistry. A typical result might include the sample id, description, age, date, tectonic setting, l
Collaboration Load
Does collaboration increase or decrease cognitive load during learning? On one hand, collaboration enables some degree of division of labour that may reduce cognitive load. On the other hand since interacting, expressing thoughts, monitoring anotherÂ’s understanding, grounding, etc., are mechanisms inducing some extraneous cognitive load, they may create cognitive overload and impede learning mechanisms. However this additional load may explain why collaboration sometimes leads to knowledge cons
Internet Scout Project
The free access portion of the Atlapedia Online site, Countries A to Z, provides an attractive political and physical map of each country of the world, including basic information such as its capital, system of government, population, geography, climate, religions, languages, currency, modern history, trading partners, exports, military, and more. Giving students of any age access to interesting and fun facts, the database can be searched easily or browsed by the first letter of each country. Al
Lecture 18 - 11/30/2010
Lecture 18
Educator's Guide to Hosting a Global Health Conference
This guide uses biology, health, and world study topics to engage students in global health issues and solutions from experiential and multidisciplinary perspectives. The guide offers an outline of how to organize and host a "Global Health Conference," and provides suggestions regarding logistics and instructions as well as resource materials for preparing and organizing a student conference. The Global Health Conference is a school event where students present display boards and two-page essays
Internet Scout Project
This website on spiders of Siberia was developed by Russian entomologist Oleg Berlóv. The site contains species lists for more than 20 families including Oxyopidae, Gnaphosidae, Lycosidae, and Salticidae, to name a few. In addition, the site features a number of excellent, close-up photographs of several spider species such as Araneus nordmanni, Argyroneta aquatica, Steatoda grossa, and Aculepeira ceropegia. This website also references and links to The World Spider Catalog located on the Ameri
Internet Scout Project
Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit organization founded by the grassroots Virginia Organizing Project (VOP) in 2002 to help increase public understanding of emerging scientific links between environmental exposure and human health, tracks a broad range of relevant information on this well-designed and useful website. The In the News section of the homepage lists breaking news stories from the world press about environmental health and is updated daily. The New Science area offers paragra
Internet Scout Project
Engaging in social issues in today's society requires an understanding of numerical data, statistics, and mathematical assumptions that underlie discussions about the federal budget, the spread of disease and other issues. However, the mathematics and the social issues are often considered in isolation and leave many Americans "ill-prepared to make informed decisions." The Thinking with Data Project is a new initiative of the National Science Foundation, SRI International, Kent State University
Essential Science for Teachers: Life Science: Session 2. Classifying Living Things
How can we make sense of the living world? During this session, a systematic approach to biological classification is introduced as a starting point for understanding the nature of the remarkable diversity of life on Earth.,This segment deals with the "other" organisms that do not easily fall into the plant or animal category. 7 year olds talk about a third ring to the Venn diagram and that bacteria would be an "other".
Internet Scout Project
The Beach Erosion site of the WhyFiles (last mentioned in the August 9, 1996 Scout Report), a project funded by the graduate school of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been recently updated. Its newest addition includes a story about the population of the tiny Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu that is preparing to abandon its home due to rising sea levels. The site takes a look at this subject and the resulting increased beach erosion that takes place around the world. Visitors can read ab
BEARS conference UC Berkeley
The Berkeley EECS Annual Research Symposium (BEARS) is a conference hosted by UC Berkeley's Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences department in the College of Engineering. This website provides the agenda for the 2005 BEARS (held on February 10 and 11) along with information on the presenters and abstracts and video footage of their presentations. The conference highlights work from EECS scientists on "advances enabling computing and communications to connect diverse aspects of our world.
Internet Scout Project
The IRIS Seismic Monitor allows users to monitor global earthquakes in near real time. Researchers can locate the geology, vault conditions, site description, station instrumentation, and additional information on stations throughout the world. Visitors can learn about the latest earthquake news, including special reports of earthquakes that significantly affected human populations or had scientific significance. Students and teachers can find images and descriptions of plate tectonics as well a
Internet Scout Project
The University of Michigan's educational site called Windows to the Universe (last mentioned in the January 6, 1999 Scout Report for Science and Engineering) has added many new lessons to their content. Highlights of these include two activities centered around magnetism. Clicking on the links to the Student Activity Sheet and reading the Notes to the Teacher are essential for getting the most out of the activities. To undertake the magnetism lessons, first follow the instructions to make the ho
