K-12 Virtual Labs for Teaching the Science of Geochronology

美国博伊西州立大学（Boise State University）的一个由地球科学家、教学设计和教育技术专家组成的研究小组正在开发一系列虚拟学习活动来教授地质年代学。地质年代学的定义不仅包括了解地质时间的浩瀚，还包括如何定义地质时间尺度，以及为什么了解地球事件的年龄很重要。该课程是与爱达荷州数字学习学院合作设计的，用于在其在线地球科学课程中实施和评估，但将通过教学资源的数字图书馆向全国的学生和教师开放。与爱达荷州数字学习学院合作，实现了以下目标：1)开发一系列虚拟实验室和实地体验（学习对象），供初高中学生使用，这些虚拟实验室和实地体验可以作为地质年代学综合课程的一部分，也可以单独使用，专注于为每个活动定义的特定学习目标；2)创建学习对象，使其符合scorm标准，并可在BlackBoard(R)和Moodle(R)等学习管理系统中轻松使用；3)地质年代学教师的培训和学习对象的使用；4)评价学习对象在实现其教育目标方面的有效性。

A research team composed of geoscientists and instructional design and educational technology specialists at Boise State University is developing a series of virtual learning activities to teach the science of geochronology, which is defined to include an understanding not only of the vastness of geologic time, but how the geologic time scale is defined, and why knowing the ages of Earth events is important. The curriculum is being designed in partnership with the Idaho Digital Learning Academy for implementation and evaluation in their on-line Earth Science courses but will be available nationwide to students and teachers through digital libraries of teaching resources. In cooperation with the Idaho Digital Learning Academy, the following objectives are being met: 1) Development of a series of virtual labs and field experiences (learning objects) for use by middle and high school students that can be strung together as part of a comprehensive curriculum on the science of geochronology or used separately to focus on specific learning objectives defined for each activity; 2) Creation of the learning objects such that they are SCORM-compliant and can readily be used in learning management systems such as BlackBoard(R) and Moodle(R); 3) Training of teachers in the science of geochronology and the use of the learning objects; and 4) Evaluation of the effectiveness of the learning objects in meeting their educational objectives.