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Skills Workshop AbstractsCommunity Collection Building: Successes and lessons learned from building DWEL (Digital Water Education Library) Bryan Aivazian & Ed Geary, Andrew Warnock, Jaime Whitlock, Courtney Butler, Mick Khoo Thematic collections have the potential to significantly increase the DLESE holdings. Community groups can bring their combined experience and enthusiasm to the development of such collections. However, there are a number of procedural and philosophical issues that need to be addressed if a collection expects to become part of DLESE. These include: recruitment and training of key stakeholders from the target audience, establishing an effective workflow process, agreeing on a rigorous set of review criteria, and promoting good communications across all levels of the project. Having knowledge of these and other issues going into the planning of a project is extremely important. The Digital Water Education Library (DWEL) is a good example of a community built collection. The session will focus on the lessons learned from this project so that you can take your idea for a collection and turn it into a reality. Geoscience Education Through Interactive Technology (GETIT) - Stuart Birnbaum Geoscience Education Through Interactive Technology (GETIT) is a standards-based, truly interactive CD-ROM developed with funding from the National Science Foundation in collaboration with the Geologic Society of America. Employing the philosophy of depth rather than breadth, GETIT invokes a constructivist approach for exploring Earth's systems. Incorporating a visually rich environment, GETIT uses energy transfer as a common theme to explore earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, and hurricanes through the use of real data sets and by providing tools for student research. This skills session will introduce and explore GETIT while addressing issues of interactivity, inquiry, and assessment strategies. Integrating Field and Digital Resources - Stuart Birnbaum & Mark Francek Science is a discipline that attempts to describe and explain nature and natural phenomena. Historically, the sciences are rooted in field observations; the stars, the rocks and soils, the oceans, rivers, and lakes, and the fauna and flora were, and remain, important objects of observation. The laboratory is also an important venue for conducting scientific inquiry, but the work conducted in the laboratory is, ultimately, linked to questions that derive from field observations and questions. As scientists working in Earth systems disciplines, we recognize that much of the excitement of our discipline derives from the experience received while conducting fieldwork. This excitement and enthusiasm should become a normal part of the K-16 curriculum. Incorporating an Earth system field-based component in your curriculum can provide the necessary engagement to inspire students to ask meaningful questions and develop critical thinking skills. This workshop is designed to allow participants to formulate their own questions and define research protocols. The Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) can provide an important link between original field observations and the current state of knowledge as represented in the DLESE collection. Participants will have the opportunity to develop their own questions based on a short field trip around campus, propose research strategies based upon observations made on the field trip, and use DLESE to start their research. Increasing Spatial Literacy with an Internet GIS - Steve Brown A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer program that can be used to display, investigate, model and query spatial data. Because of this ability, a GIS can be a very effective tool for teaching geography, science, history or virtually any discipline that has a spatial context. Unfortunately, traditional GIS software can be very expensive, difficult to learn and require extensive computing resources to operate. These difficulties can be overcome utilizing a Distributed GIS (DGIS) via the Internet. In order for a person to take advantage of a DGIS, they simply need a computer with a web browser and a connection to the Internet. This presentation will explain GIS and its educational potential, demonstrate free GIS resources and visit GIS enabled websites on the Web. Collections Evaluation: Tools and Methods for Project, Resource, and Whole Collections Evaluation and Assessment - Barbara DeFelice, Lecia J. Barker &Kim Kastens A high quality, relevant, useful collection of earth system science educational materials has been a highly desired characteristic of DLESE from its inception. For a collection which is community driven like DLESE, it is critical to have a variety of methods of evaluating and assessing the collection as a whole and the resources within it. It is also important to provide the DLESE community with tools to evaluate educational projects. This workshop will help you learn about several different tools and methods for evaluating projects, resources and whole collections, which is necessary to achieve the goal of high quality DLESE collections and resources. This session will introduce participants to three different approaches to the evaluation and assessment of DLESE content: 1. The DLESE Evaluation Toolkit provides a broad array of tools to evaluate earth system education learning resources and projects. 2. The DLESE Community Review project provides a mechanism for formal review of individual resources in the DLESE collections. 3. The DLESE Collections Assessment project considers the DLESE collections as a whole, and through comparing the collection content to collection use, provides ideas about areas of the collection that need to be developed. This session will be useful for people concerned about developing high quality learning projects, resources, and collections. Collection Building Using the DLESE Catalog System -- Holly Devaul, Katy Ginger, and Michael Flanagan The DLESE Catalog System allows collection builders to develop, manage, search and share their collections. By the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to use the DCS to support the technical aspects of collection building. Builders can use the DCS to create metadata records using the DLESE-IMS framework, which has been developed specifically to support the description and discovery of digital educational objects related to Earth System Science. Builders can view and edit their collections records, and share their records with DLESE and NSDL. This session will introduce participants to the tool from downloading and installing to hands-on cataloging and guided management tasks. We will discuss cataloging best practice, including the use of and definitions for controlled vocabularies. We will also suggest workflows for distributed cataloging and quality assurance procedures. We will also discuss plans for future development including a transition to the ADN framework. Take advantage of this standard training session by the DPC offered at the Annual Meeting, for metadata and cataloging. Gain the training you need to see your project integrated into the DLESE and NSDL collections. Making GIS Accessible with Tools Designed for Learners -- Daniel Edelson Historically it has been a real challenge to let students engage directly in data visualization and analysis, because the tools that are available were designed for scientists who bring extensive knowledge, motivation, and even time to learn the tools to their use of them. For nearly 10 years, the WorldWatcher Project at Northwestern University has been developing tools for analyzing geospatial data that are designed specifically for use by students and teachers in inquiry-based science classes. These tools enable secondary and undergraduate students to begin conducting investigations of data immediately, with little or no time spent learning the tools themselves. In this session, we will introduce two tools, WorldWatcher and My World, that are optimized for gridded (raster) and vector (point, polygon, and polyline) data respectively and provide examples of learning activities that have been used in secondary and undergraduate classes. Information about the tools are available at http://www.worldwatcher.northwestern.edu/software.htm ISS EarthKAM: An Online Image Datasystem Designed Explicitly for the Classroom --Teon Edwards and Diane Bowen In this hands-on-the-computers session, participants will learn how to use the ISS EarthKAM Datasystem, a student and teacher friendly collection of Earth images taken by students from the Space Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS). The Datasystem includes Image Exploration functions, with various image views, maps, and metadata, that support teachers and students as they try to figure out and learn from the Earth images. Additional support for using the Datasystem and integrating the images into classroom curricula is provided through tutorials, activities, and educator guides. The Datasystem is designed explicitly for use in the classroom, so participants will also consider the lessons that can be learned from the system's design. Check out the Datasystem online at http://datasystem.earthkam.ucsd.edu/ . Also check out the ISS EarthKAM program at http://www.earthkam.ucsd.edu . Jules Verve Voyager and VoyagerJr: Our goal has been to develop user-friendly Web tools to make scientific data and results accessible to a large number and variety of users. The top layer provides the user with scientific context, and is targeted to be usable by students and teachers grades 8-12 and introductory college courses. The underlaying layers include interactive map tools which can be used in conjunction with the top layer context or by themselves. The prototype for the top layer is 'Exploring Our Dynamic Planet' (http://www.dpc.ucar.edu/VoyagerJr), and the map tools are the 'Jules Verne Voyager' interactive map tool and the 'Voyager Junior' image sampler tool, both available on http://jules.unavco.org/Voyager/Earth/. These were also presented at the 2002 Annual DLESE Skills Workshop; for more details see: http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu/dlese/skills/lou.html This year's workshop will provide an overview of 'Exploring Our Dynamic Planet' and the Voyager and Voyager Junior tools for Earth. In addition, we will also look at the new EarthScope versions of the tools, and explore how to use Voyager for comparative planetology. For this activity, you will have access to the Voyager versions for the entire inner Solar System which were available last year (i.e. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon, Mars, Deimos, Phobos), and beta versions for the outer Solar System: Jupiter and the galilean moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto--some of which have Galileo image mosaics down to 0.5 km resolution. Come and have some fun exploring and discovering new places! Mapping Data over the Internet: Introducing ArcIMS - Charles Fitzpatrick From street maps to flood zones and earthquake maps to phenology and critter maps, more and more spatial data is available for public exploration via a web browser. ArcIMS software allows users to make data available for interactive viewing. See ArcIMS in operation, and see how easy it can be to build an interactive map for the web. Introduction to GPS - Mark Francek In this "hands-on" introduction to GPS, we will use Lowrance GPS units for position acquisition, waypoint creation, and navigation. We begin the session with a brief discussion on the origins of GPS, how it works, and sources of error. Using web resources, we will then determine the best time to collect GPS data. Next, we use GPS units in the field to acquire position and elevation data, create a waypoint, and then navigate to an unknown waypoint. Point data collected in the field will then be entered into Microsoft Excel and then brought into ArcView GIS as an event theme. The session concludes with an overview of how GPS is revolutionizing research in the earth sciences. Handouts on GPS operation and exemplary GPS web sites are provided. Atmospheric Aerosols Project: A Student-Teacher-Scientist Partnership Atmospheric aerosols are tiny liquid or solid particles that are suspended in the atmosphere. Individual particles are too small to be visible, but together they give the air a hazy appearance. These aerosols can influence weather and climate by reducing the amount of sunlight that reaches Earth's surface. They can also affect the health of humans and all living organisms. Dr. David Brooks has been conducting research to learn more about how the concentration of atmospheric aerosols varies in time and space, and how those variations may be related to other changes on the planet. Students can support Dr. Brooks' research while engaging in a research project of their own. This project starts with the students taking daily measurements of atmospheric aerosols, relative humidity, air temperature and other atmospheric variables, evolves into exploring the relationship between aerosols and other local atmospheric variables such as humidity or the air quality index, and culminates in the students drawing results from their work and creating a research report. In this skills workshop you will learn how to
Working with online sources of georeferenced data Part 1 - Bev Hunter, Al Lewandowski, and Herschel Sarnoff Hundreds of government agencies, community organizations and private organizations offer remotely-sensed data, interactive mapping and other visualization tools via the World Wide Web. Data on any imaginable topic are available, from physical to biological to environmental, from human endeavors to behaviors of the natural planet. Some data are global or national in scope from such agencies such as USGS, US EPA, Census Bureau; some are state-wide and local, from state and local governments, universities and other organizations. How can teachers, curriculum specialists, and community-based organizations take advantage of these sources to support learning and problem solving? Which of these myriad sources are suitable for what purposes and topics? What tools do you need in order to take advantage of these sources? Participants will evaluate and apply sources of online, georeferenced data, choosing among case scenarios of GIS projects developed by high school teachers. Participants will become familiar with criteria for selecting online data sources, such as the geographic extent of study area, data types needed to support the study (tabular, vector, and imagery data layers), resolution and scale, availability of spatial metadata, and the web-based and desktop tools needed to manipulate the data. Participants will become familiar with ways in which schools take advantage of GIS tools and georeferenced data, and learn to locate appropriate data sources for the projects. Materials for this workshop are based on work over three years with hundreds of teachers in an NSF - supported online Collaboratory VISIT (Virtual Immersion in Science Inquiry for Teachers). Hunter is Co-Principal Investigator and Lewandowski and Sarnoff are teacher leaders and facilitators in VISIT. Working with online sources of georeferenced data: Part 2: Creating a base map for your own study - Bev Hunter, Al Lewandowski, and Herschel Sarnoff (Part 1 is not a prerequisite for participating in Part 2) . Participants will design and create a base map for a study area for their own topic and location. They will learn to specify and apply criteria for selecting online data sources, such as the geographic extent of study area, data types needed to support the study (tabular, vector, and imagery data layers), resolution and scale, availability of spatial metadata, and tools needed to manipulate the data. Hundreds of government agencies, community organizations and private organizations offer georeferenced data, remote-sense images, interactive mapping and other visualization tools via the World Wide Web. Data on any imaginable topic are available. Some are global or national in scope from such agencies such as USGS, US EPA, Census Bureau; some are state-wide and local from state and local governments and other organizations. How can teachers, curriculum specialists, and community-based organizations take advantage of these sources to support learning and problem solving? Which of these myriad sources are suitable for what purposes and topics? What tools do you need in order to take advantage of these sources? Materials for this workshop are based on our work over three years with hundreds of teachers in an NSF - supported online Collaboratory called VISIT (Virtual Immersion in Science Inquiry for Teachers). Hunter is Co-Principal Investigator and Lewandowski and Sarnoff are teacher leaders and facilitators in VISIT. Using the Atmospheric Visualization Collection (AVC) - Christopher Klaus This workshop will involve classroom uses of the AVC (www.nsdl.arm.gov), and a team oriented experience in online collaborative curriculum development. In the first portion of the workshop we will investigate:
In the second portion of the workshop the participants will be broken into teams to create and/or modify activities and lesson plans using the Lesson Plan Sandbox. Long distance collaborations will be simulated by exchanging projects between teams. A Guided Tour Through DLESE - Getting your feet wet for DLESE Novices! - Mary Marlino, Susan Hovorka, Raj Pandya This session will guide the participant through the DLESE web site. It is for people who have not used DLESE in any significant way prior to the conference. You might call it-"Getting Your Feet Wet with DLESE!" Session Highlights will be:
We are also planning a scavenger hunt on DLESE. With prizes!
Global Earthquake Explorer - Thomas J. Owens & Philip Crotwell, University of South Carolina Utilization of near-real time observations of our natural environment is an exciting new frontier in Earth science education and public consumption. A major challenge of utilizing research-oriented data sources is effectively encapsulating it in a form that is easily understood and manipulated by interested, but inexperienced learners. In the seismology community, we have established the infrastructure to effectively deliver earthquake data to central archives in near-real time. Through these advances, access to data from research observatories around the globe is no longer limited to trained seismologists. This vast archive of data, and its availability in real-time, is a resource with tremendous potential to educate and inform learners at all levels through both formal and informal learning venues. The Global Earthquake Explorer (GEE), a Java-based application fully functional in data access and analysis tools for exploratory activities and structured learning modules, has been developed to exploit the availability of earthquake data and make it available to students and teachers. GEE, funded jointly by IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology) and the University of South Carolina, provides immediate access to real time data from global seismograph stations to anyone in the world with an Internet connection. Teachers and students in the South Carolina are using this software as part of the South Carolina Earth Physics Project (SCEPP), a statewide program to utilize earthquake data to teach physical science and physics concepts at the high school level. We will illustrate the features of GEE and how it can be used to to explorer earthquakes in the classroom. GEE is free software that can be downloaded from either the IRIS web site (http://www.iris.edu) or the SCEPP web site (http://www.seis.sc.edu/scepp). Geospatial Junction: GIS for the classroom - Anita Palmer & Roger Palmer Using geospatial data in the classroom has been made more accessible through developments of online libraries such as DLESE. GIS is a rich technology that encourages exploration of online spatial data. This session will be a hands-on look at a lesson from Mapping Our World: GIS Lessons for educators, a brief exploration of GPS technology in the field, and a follow-up lesson from Community Geography: GIS in Action! These materials have been aligned with the national geography, science and technology standards so are more easily integrated into your curriculum. Come take the class today and use GIS in your classroom tomorrow! No GIS experience necessary. Rich Annotation of Images: Fun & learning with interactive web drawing tool - Pramod Jain This workshop is for researchers, educators and content authors who work with images. This workshop will present the following:
Introduction to GIS - Herschel Sarnoff An introduction to ArcView 3.3 GIS software. Participants will learn how GIS can be implemented in their own instructional programs. Participants will gain hands on experience using the software in a computer lab environment. Handouts will include software, data, charts and other materials. The SAGUARO Project - Michelle Wallace Science and GIS: Unleashing Analysis and Research Opportunities has developed a series of in-depth GIS-based investigations suitable for introductory level college and secondary school instructors and students with limited or no experience with a GIS. Modules incorporating four to five investigations each have been developed on plate tectonics and geologic hazards, tropical cyclones, and water resources. In addition, a module on oceanography is underway. The investigations are designed to eliminate the need to teach about GIS so that the students have time to learn about Earth processes using real data. In this hands-on workshop, participants will work through one investigation from each of the three completed modules to explore the range of analyses possible with a GIS and the richness of working with real data sets. Effective Science Writing Exercises for Enhancing Learning - Edward Walton This workshop will share strategies, ideas, and examples of the use of effective science writing exercises as a means to enhance science learning. Written exercise assignments in science can be both an effective teaching tool and part of the assessment process. Science writing not only involves attention to information, but also involves the process of having writers come to an understanding of, and making meaning of, the information and concepts. There is no doubt that writing helps students learn better. Examples of writing exercises and assignments that have worked well in classes will be shared. This workshop will offer ideas and insights on when and how to make effective writing assignments for your students. We will present suggestions for using DLESE and other resources for finding and developing stimulating writing exercise assignments. With short workshop illustrations and exercises we will show effective ways to use science writing exercises in teaching. Library Interoperability Using OAI: Building the Library by Collection - John Weatherley and Katy Ginger This workshop will provide an overview of the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH, version 2.0), the primary means of library interoperability for both DLESE and the NSDL. At the conclusion of this workshop, participants will have the resources necessary to be able to begin sharing metadata collections with DLESE, the NSDL and other OAI-enabled digital libraries. The workshop will focus on sharing and harvesting library collections via OAI, including a brief look at the metadata formats being used at DLESE and the NSDL (ADN and Dublin Core). Participants will get a hands-on practice with OAI by harvesting and sharing metadata records with other workshop participants. This workshop is geared toward new users who are wishing to become familiar with OAI and the use of an 'out of the box' software solution for sharing metadata collections. People who attended a previous DLESE OAI workshop may wish to attend as a refresher or to become familiar with some of the new features associated with version 2.0 of the DLESE OAI software. Take advantage of this standard training session by the DPC offered at the Annual Meeting for library interoperability. Gain the training you need to see your project integrated into the DLESE and NSDL collections. |
