Collaborative Web-Based Tools for Learning to Integrate Scientific Results Into Social Policy

这个项目将一个屡获殊荣的中学科学项目与社区导师结合在一起，在创新的万维网环境中代表这些观点。该科学项目包括测试几种人工湿地的有效性，以减轻落基山脉一座废弃矿山排水的负面化学影响。在过去的五年里，学生们发现了这些影响及其来源，研究了减少这些影响的方法，并参与了人工湿地的设计和建设。他们已准备好应对下一个障碍：将这些结果纳入一项行动计划，该计划考虑到与该计划有利害关系的社区的需求。学生将根据这些小组组成相应的小组。他们将在老师和同意担任导师的社区代表的指导下，单独研究他们团队的观点。然后，他们将把他们的个人结果整合到一个团队的视角中，所有团队的视角将在行动计划中得到考虑。这两个阶段所需的团队合作过程由将要使用的技术直接支持。该技术框架用WebGuide工具表示。这个工具允许个人记录和注释他们的研究到“观点”。然后，它提供了支持协作过程的工具：提出想法、比较和评估想法、谈判和达成共识。它提供了一个理想的环境，学生可以实际实践这些过程，观察如何做得好，并提高他们的技能。它还允许社区导师在他们的办公室或家中直接观察和促进这些过程。这与把一群学生扔到一个房间里，告诉他们“做一个团队项目”是完全不同的。它实际上提供了一个电子场所，让他们学习如何做团队项目。不仅这个项目的技术非常适合，学校也非常适合。洛根创造性学习学院以强烈的个人导向和基于项目的课程方法为中心。该项目显然适合这种情况；它将得到蓬勃发展所需的支持。该项目将对促进知识的发展和为地球科学界建立重要的人力资源产生影响。该方法将以具体案例为指导，但该系统可以在许多环境中工作，包括K-16教室、大学研究中心、政府机构和非政府组织。所有这些群体在未来的环境决策中都有利害关系。这个项目将把网络建成一个共享信息的场所，以便在任何需要的空间尺度上为这些决策提供信息。

9870934HabermanThis project blends an award-winning middle school science project with community mentors representing those perspectives in an innovative World Wide Web environment for doing just that. The science project involves testing the effectiveness of several types of artificial wetlands in abating the negative chemical effects of drainage from an abandoned mine in the Rocky Mountains. Over the last five years students identified those effects and their source, researched methods for abating the effects, and participated in the design and construction of the artificial wetlands. They are ready to tackle the next obstacle: integrating those results into an action plan that considers the needs of the communities with stakes in that plan. Students will form teams corresponding to each of these groups. They will research their team's perspective individually with guidance from the teacher and from representatives of those communities that have agreed to act as mentors. They will then bring together their individual results into a team perspective and the perspectives of all of the teams will be considered in the action plan. The teamwork processes required for these two phases is directly supported by the technology that will be used. The technological framework is expressed in a tool called WebGuide. This tool allows individuals to record and annotate their research into "perspectives". It then provides tools that support collaborative processes: proposing ideas, comparing and assessing ideas, negotiating, and reaching consensus. It provides an ideal environment in which students can actually practice these processes, observe how to do them well, and improve their skills. It also allows the community mentors to directly observe and facilitate these processes from their offices or homes. This is fundamentally different than throwing a group of students into a room with instructions like "do a team project". It actually provides an electronic venue in which they learn how to do team projects. Not only is the technology of this project ideally suited, the school is as well. The Logan School for Creative Learning is centered around a strong individually oriented and project based curricular approach. The project will clearly fit in to this situation; it will receive the support that it needs to flourish. This project will have an impact on advancing knowledge and building an important human resource for the Geoscience community. The approach will be guided by a specific case, but the system can work in many environments including K-16 classrooms, university research centers, government agencies, and NGO's. All of these groups have stakes in the environmental decisions of the future. This project will build the Web into a venue for sharing the information required to inform those decisions on whatever spatial scale required.