EDUCATION WORLD'S MILLENNIUM SERIES PRESENTS...
Explore the World -- Virtually!
What did your students do on their vacation? Probably nothing as exciting as the adventures they can embark on right in their own classroom! Even better -- there will be no sandy clothing, insect bites, sunburns, or lost luggage on these trips. Where are they going? Anywhere in the world -- with just the click of a mouse. Check out these online adventures. Then grab your students and hop aboard!
EXPLORE AFRICA
"Globalearn is one of the earliest and most elegant examples of how the Internet can bring the world into the classrooms of the nation."
-- Don Tapscott, Growing Up Digital
Globalearn, a nonprofit educational company, travels around the world gathering information and relaying it by satellite to its Web site. This year, for a cost of about $150, Globalearn brings eastern Africa into any classroom in the nation. Explore the possibilities of bringing it into yours as well.
According to Rhonda Struminger, Globalearn's director of online productions, this year's five-week expedition to Kenya and Tanzania will be led by Marguerite Baty, a past Peace Corp volunteer and veteran expedition leader.
"Students will learn about animal and human migration, the African way of life, the use of tools, and the wonders of eastern Africa," Struminger said.
Struminger told Education World that the exploration team will post written and photographic journals and travel logs, and that students will have access to a language guide, quizzes, a scavenger hunt, and a daily newswire focusing on Kenya and Tanzania. They'll chat with guest experts, write creative stories, and have their work published on the site. The Travel Log includes directions for conducting a poll, space for timelines and graphs or charts, expedition themes, and Web samplers and WebQuests.
Teachers, Struminger said, receive a Teacher's Guide full of student handouts, activities, and bulletin board materials to help prepare for the expedition. They'll be able to locate other participating teachers and get support for collaborative projects. Globalearn also offers teacher workshops.
"In addition, we offer journals written at beginner, intermediate, and advanced reading levels," Struminger added. "By following the expedition, students will be able to piece together human history in this fascinating part of the world while increasing their basic reading, writing, technology, and research skills."
SOLVE AN ANCIENT MYSTERY
You might choose to begin your virtual adventures closer to home by participating in the AmericaQuest journey through the American Southwest.
More than a thousand years ago, the Anasazi (ancient Pueblo Native Americans) developed a highly advanced civilization in the area now known as the "Four Corners," formed by the borders of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado. The Anasazi built an extensive road system, used flashing beacons to communicate over long distances, dug irrigation systems, and used other highly successful agricultural techniques. Sometime around 1300, however, the Anasazi civilization simply disappeared. The dwellings were found in ruins, abandoned or burned down. A century of archaeological research has failed to turn up a single clue about the fate of the people.
From March 6 through 31, 2000, the AmericaQuest team will explore the desert wilderness of the American Southwest and try to find out what happened to this great civilization. Students will direct the expedition, gathering data and proposing theories. They will set the expedition's course, help solve ethical dilemmas, and collaborate with the world's top scientists.
According to Carol Mitchell at Classroom Connect, the sponsor of the Quest expeditions, the online activities in this exploration will promote critical thinking, cooperative learning, and hands-on learning -- and provide an exciting opportunity to integrate technology into the curriculum.
"In the end," Mitchell told Education World, "students will apply lessons from America's past to ensure a better future."
EXPLORE MARS
The Mars Millennium Project offers teams of explorers in grades K through 12 an opportunity to imagine and design a new community for 100 humans on Mars in the year 2030. The project, which began last September, will end this summer. Each team works to define engineering, science, artistic, societal, and governmental issues relating to their community. Students research their ideas and present them in some format, which is then shared publicly, online and elsewhere.
The Mars Millennium Project offers a complete guide to help teachers get started. Additional information is available on the Web site.
As a supplement to the Mars Millennium Project, NASA Quest is offering a series of "QuestChats" with NASA's Mars experts so that students can further explore their interests. Information on those chats is available at
What's Happening at Quest.
MORE VIRTUAL TRIPS!
Each year, The Jason Project, the granddaddy of online exploration, offers a new scientific expedition designed to engage and educate students and provide professional development for teachers. The project includes scientific exploration, online information, teacher training, and curriculum units aligned with national science, geography, and technology standards. Currently, JASON Project XI, Going to Extremes, is providing participants with a look at sea and space through the eyes of modern-day explorers. Students visit and compare the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Aquarius Underwater Laboratory with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's International Space Station. During the 2000-2001 school year, Jason XII will explore Hawaii and compare volcanic events on Earth with those throughout the solar system.
Adventure Online, from Learning Outfitters, Inc., offers a yearly subscription that provides teachers, parents, and students an opportunity to participate in real-world learning adventures. A $99 classroom subscription or a $449 building subscription provides members with access to several expeditions, along with background information and updates, online learning activities aligned to state standards, and interaction with expedition teams, experts, and other classrooms. The expeditions available this spring include these:
- Magellan Global Adventure. Join a family of five as they wrap up a three-year sailing trip retracing Magellan's route around the world.
- Caribbean Sea Expedition. Follow marine biologist Wayne Brown on a four-week exploration of reef and ocean ecology.
- Thule 2000. Accompany Lonnie Dupre and John Hoelscher on the last leg of their trip to circumnavigate Greenland.
- Expedition Africa. Pedal along with two cyclists as they travel the entire continent.
Teachers planning ahead for next year might want to sign on for a trip Around the World in a 46-Foot Motor Boat. The boat will be launched from the West Coast of the United States in April 2001, travel to Micronesia, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Greece, Turkey, Italy, Spain, France, England, and Portugal. The boat will return on New Year's Eve 2003. Using digital cameras, sound-recording devices, and a satellite hookup, the boat's crew will transmit information about their experiences to students in real time. Schools in France, Stockholm, Norway, and the United States have already registered for the free voyage.
If you hurry, you can still join the first stage of Phil Buck's Reed Ship Circumnavigation, a ten-year expedition that will circle the globe in five separate reed ship voyages. Students can follow the journey at the Web site, which provides an itinerary, an equipment list, journal entries, photographs, updates, and background information. They can also participate more fully with resources such as conference calls, science experiments, and video presentations for a cost of $550.
Finally, if you'd like to explore, but don't have the time for even the shortest real-time project, check out one of the completed expeditions at TerraQuest. Here, students can re-create trips to Antarctica, the Galápagos Islands, and Yosemite National Park in California.
Article by Linda Starr
Education World®
Copyright © 2000 Education World
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02/21/2000
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