Collaborative Research - Model My Watershed: Developing a Cyberlearning Application and Curricula to Enhance Interest in STEM Careers

为我的流域建模是一个为期三年的项目，旨在为中学生开发、测试和传播流域建模工具集。它旨在以GoogleEarth为基础，提供一个动态界面，学生可以在其中导入和添加数据，修改环境条件和基本算法，在协作的在线学习环境中工作，以及接触STEM职业。该设计基于这样一种信念，即学生应该拥有一个真实、令人兴奋、直观和互动的工具集，让他们能够调查自己的社区。这些调查挑战学生根据科学知识和模型做出现实世界的决定。该项目利用环境科学的复杂性，让学生参与并激发他们对研究和解决环境问题所必需的不同STEM职业的兴趣。使用可信的水文建模工具集中的现有科学数据，学生学习如何预测生态系统的环境变化如何影响当地流域的水文循环。除了能够修改基础环境条件和模型算法外，学生还可以通过使用Google SketchUp等工具在景观上绘制新的表面或结构来修改他们的分水岭。一个基于网络的协作交流平台被用来将学生和学校的团队联网，提出问题或挑战，并交流他们的发现。该项目将直接影响费城地区的25名教师和1000名学生，并计划在全国范围内传播。

Model My Watershed is a three year project to develop, test and disseminate a watershed-modeling tool set for secondary students. It is designed to build on GoogleEarth and provide a dynamic interface where students can import as well as add data, modify both environmental conditions and underlying algorithms, work in a collaborative online learning environment, and be exposed to STEM careers. The design is based on the belief that students should have an authentic, exciting, intuitive and interactive tool set that allows them to investigate their own neighborhoods. The investigations challenge students to make real world decisions based on scientific knowledge and models.The project uses the complexity of environmental science to engage and excite students about the diverse STEM careers that are necessary to study and address environmental issues. Using existing scientific data in an authentic, hydrologic modeling toolset, students learn to predict how environmental changes to the ecosystem affect the hydrologic cycle in their local watersheds. In addition to being able to modify the underlying environmental conditions and model algorithms, the students can modify their watershed by drawing new surfaces or structures on the landscape using tools such as Google SketchUp. A collaborative web-based communication platform is used to network teams of students and schools to pose questions or challenges and communicate their findings. The project will directly impact 25 teachers and 1000 students in the Philadelphia area with plans for national dissemination.