A Digital Learning Center for Microbial Ecology for K-12 Education

9454825 Heeter微生物生态数字学习中心将把科学家、教育工作者和多媒体设计师聚集在一起，开发基于计算机的交互式主动学习工具，激励学习者探索、发现、操纵存在于我们环境中的微生物的微观世界，并与之互动。我们的目的是唤起人们对自然界微生物的认识，用于K-12科学教育，并为教师和学生提供可信和有效的学习工具，这些工具侧重于微生物生态中心追求的具有广泛公众利益的主题，包括生物降解、微生物进化和生物多样性。传统上，微生物被描绘成致病的“细菌”，但它们在食物生产、废物处理和其他对地球上生命的延续至关重要的过程中也扮演着许多有益的角色。数码化学习中心将可供幼稚园教师和学生透过互联网和唯读光碟使用，利用唯读光碟传送大型互动多媒体内容的便利，以及互联网上可更新的文字和多媒体资讯及电子邮件通讯的便利。该中心的组成部分将包括：微生物动物园--在照片上的数字视频上不断增长的微生物集合，可以通过多媒体“动物园”界面进行探索，或作为多媒体数据库进行搜索和分类，链接文本、数据、图像和数字视频；交互式学习体验-多媒体交互软件模块，为教师提供学习经验，可以让学生参与微生物生态学的各个方面；会见科学家-中心科学家的数字视频剪辑，非正式地解释他们的研究和他们认为令人着迷的科学方面，以及一个温和的公告栏，供学生、教师和科学家交流；新闻中的微生物-新闻中的数字化印刷和电子故事，结合科学家的评论和专题课程计划，用于在与学生生活相关的背景下教授科学；数字教学助理-利用数字学习中心进行教学的建议和电子教案；动手实验室资源-为教师提供的进行真实世界实验的教学计划，学生在当地环境中体验动觉、嗅觉和实时的科学探究过程；数字兴趣点-指向与微生物生态有关的印刷、电子和软件信息资源的指针。数字学习中心将作为一项试点计划，由科学家、教育工作者和多媒体设计师合作开发和提供K-12互动科学学习体验，最终可能应用于NSF科学和技术中心的所有教育推广计划。

9454825 Heeter The Digital Learning Center for Microbial Ecology will bring together scientists, educators and multimedia designers to develop interactive, computer-based active learning tools that motivate learners to explore, discover, manipulate and interact with the microscopic world of organisms that exist throughout our environment. Our intent is to spark an awareness of microbes in nature for K-12 science education and to provide teachers and students with credible and effective learning tools which focus on themes pursued by the Center for Microbial Ecology which have broad public interest, including biodegradation, microbial evolution and biodiversity. Microbes have traditionally been portrayed in their role as disease-causing "germs," but they also play many beneficial roles as essential agents in food production, waste disposal, and other processes critical to the continuation of life on Earth. The Digital Learning Center will be accessible to K-12 teachers and students over the Internet and on CD-ROM, taking advantage of the ease of transporting large interactive multimedia content with elegant user interfaces via CD-ROM and the ease of updatable text and multimedia information access and electronic mail communication available over the Internet. Components of the Center will include: The Microbe Zoo - an ever-growing collection of microbes on digital video on photos which can be explored through a multimedia "zoo ' interface or searched and sorted as a multimedia database which links text, data, images and digital video; Interactive Learning Experiences - multimedia interactive software modules that provide teachers with learning experiences that can engage students with various aspects of the science of microbial ecology; Meet the Scientists - digital video clips of center scientists explaining in lay terms their research and aspects of science they find fascinating, plus a moderated bulletin board for communication among students, teachers and scientists; Microbes In The News - digitized print and electronic stories in the news, combined with commentary from scientists and topical lessons plans for teaching about science in contexts that relates to students' lives; Digital Teaching Assistant - suggestions and electronic lesson plans for using the Digital Learning Center for teaching and learning; Hands-On Laboratory Resources - lesson plans for teachers on conducting real world experiments where students experience kinesthetic, olefactory and real time process of scientific inquiry in their local environment; Digital Points of Interest - pointers to print, electronic and software information resources related to microbial ecology. The Digital Learning Center will serve as a pilot program for collaborative development and delivery of K-12 interactive science learning experiences by scientists, educators and multimedia designers that could ultimately be applied to all of the NSF Science and Technology Centers' Education Outreach Programs.