June 1996 — Features

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Universal Access to Science Study via Internet

Dr. Edward A. Friedman and Joshua D. Baron, Stevens Institute of Tech., and Cynt

Example 2: Temperature
http://njnie.dl.stevens-tech.edu/curriculum/temp/intro.html

In this study, conducted in March 1996, early elementary students from around the world looked at how average daily temperature was affected by a location's proximity to the equator. Students from over 150 schools worldwide participated in this project, honing their skills of measurement, conversion of units, latitude and longitude, and graphing.

This three-week project began with an introductory week where participating schools sent a class e-mail to all other participants, stating the school's longitude and latitude as well as some information about the students, their culture and their daily activities. Upon receiving e-mail in return, students used latitude and longitude skills to pinpoint the new project member on a world map.

In the measurement week of the project, participants took the temperature at noon local time and sent the data to all participants. In the final week, participants converted all data to the same unit ¬ Celsius or Fahrenheit ¬ and graphed average weekly temperatures versus latitude to determine if a pattern existed. Data was compiled and shared with other schools.

This project included schools from the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Sweden, England and Australia. It included students from traditional school settings, as well as home schoolers who were able to broaden their social contact through e-mail with the other participants. For young students, such simple collaborative data projects are particularly powerful in that they introduce global understanding and sensitivity that is difficult to inspire without using electronic communication.

Public Domain Data Bases

Example 1: Ships at Sea
http://njnie.dl.stevens-tech.edu/curriculum/oceans/stowaway.html

Hundreds of ships in the world's oceans regularly report their precise location along with basic information about weather and water conditions. These data can easily be obtained from a data base maintained by Ocean Weather, Inc., which updates the information several times each day. While this volume of information can be overwhelming, we have found it provides an exciting way for students to engage in vicarious travel. By pretending they are frightened stowaways on a ship, children can try to determine the location of the port to which their ship is bound. Using sequential reports of location, Internet resources can be employed to calculate the speed and direction of the ship. With this information, estimates for arrival at a port city can be determined.