US-Southern Africa Cooperative Research: International Distance Learning on the Environment of Southern Africa

0115438Macko该奖项支持由弗吉尼亚大学(UVA)、莫桑比克爱德华多·蒙德兰大学(UEM)和南非威特沃特斯兰德大学(WITS)实施的为期一年的环境科学国际远程学习项目的试点项目。每所参与的大学将通过卫星广播转播一些研讨会(六个来自弗吉尼亚大学，两个来自UEM和WITS)。南部非洲已经并将继续经历主要由人类对环境的干预所带来的大规模土地利用/土地覆盖变化。这些变化可能会在区域、大陆和全球范围内产生环境影响。环境教育对于了解这些对全球环境和美国环境的影响至关重要。这一试点项目将探索通过一系列环境科学卫星研讨会，让美国和南非的本科生和研究生接触前沿技术和科学内容的可行性。研讨会转播将使美国学生能够直接接触到地区专家讲师和非洲学生，并与他们进行互动。美国和非洲的学生还将通过互联网进行互动，使用弗吉尼亚大学提供的课堂互联网工具。该项目预期将通过利用伙伴大学现有的广泛学术优势，促进关于区域系统一级环境问题的知识和信息的转让。预计它还将有助于在美国和南部非洲培养面向国际的年轻一代环境科学家。预计将有多达100名来自弗吉尼亚大学的本科生和20名研究生以及大约40名来自南部非洲的学生参加这些研讨会。该项目还包括美国调查人员对南部非洲的访问，以及UEM和WITS代表对UVA的访问，以便对该计划进行协作输入和评估。

0115438Macko This award supports a pilot program for a one-year international distance learning project in the environmental sciences to be conducted by the University of Virginia (UVA), the University of Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) in Mozambique, and the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) in South Africa. Each participating university will transmit some of the seminars via satellite broadcast (six from UVA and two each from UEM and WITS).Southern Africa has undergone and continues to experience large-scale land use/land cover changes largely brought about by human intervention with the environment. These changes can have environmental repercussions at the regional, continental, and global scales. Environmental education is essential for understanding these impacts on the global environment, and on the environment of the United States. This pilot project will explore the feasibility of exposing US and Southern African undergraduate and graduate students to leading edge technology and scientific content through a satellite-based seminar series in the environmental sciences. The seminar broadcasts will enable US students to have direct exposure to and interaction with regional expert lecturers and African students. The US and African students will also interact with each other through the internet, using the classroom internet tools provided by UVA. This project is expected to foster the transfer of knowledge and information on regional system level environmental problems by harnessing the existing broad spectrum of academic excellence within the partner universities. It is also expected to help create an internationally oriented generation of young environmental scientists in both the United States and Southern Africa. It is anticipated that up to 100 undergraduate and 20 graduate students from UVA will participate in these seminars, as well as approximately 40 students from Southern Africa. The project also includes visits by the US investigators to Southern Africa and visits by representatives from UEM and WITS to UVA for collaborative input to and evaluation of the program.