Collaborative Research: Model My Watershed - Teaching Environmental Sustainability

该项目将为高中教室编制环境/地球科学学科课程。 它将通过基于当地数据和问题的实践活动教授解决问题的系统方法。这将为学生提供一个机会，在他们的社区中采取行动，同时参与解决他们感兴趣的问题，并需要综合以前的学习。 Model My Watershed（MMW）v2应用程序将把新的环境数据集和地理空间功能带入课堂，提供一个基于云的学习和分析平台，可通过任何计算机或移动终端上的网络浏览器访问，从而克服将地理信息系统技术纳入中学教育的成本和技术障碍。 它还将集成新的低成本环境传感器，允许学生收集和上传自己的数据，并将其与新的MMW v2上可视化的数据进行比较。 该项目将改变全国教师的能力，在课堂上引入动手地理空间分析活动，探索广泛的地理，社会，政治和环境的概念和问题超出了该项目的具体课程重点。下一代科学标准指出，真实的研究经验是加强STEM学习所必需的。计算建模和数据收集和分析的组合将被整合到这个项目中，以满足这一需求。将STEM内容置于基于位置和问题的框架内，可以增强STEM学习。学生，在小组工作，不仅将设计解决方案，他们将被要求通过创建多媒体产品，如视频，文章和Web 2.0演示文稿，在应用程序门户网站内捍卫他们。 研究计划测试的总体假设，学生更有可能发展的职业生涯，需要系统思维和/或空间思维，如环境科学的兴趣，如果他们提供了基于问题的，基于地点的，动手学习经验，使用真实的数据，真实的地理空间分析工具和模型，并有机会收集自己的支持数据。MMW v2 Web应用程序将包括一个数据可视化工具，用于流式传输与建模应用程序相关的数据。该数据库将进行修改，以整合学生数据，使教师和学生可以很容易地将他们的数据与其他学生收集的数据以及政府和研究数据进行比较。所有的数据都可以很容易地下载，这样学生就可以更多地使用真实的数据来支持教育练习。作为对基于模型的活动的补充，项目合作伙伴将设计、制造和分发一种低成本的环境监测设备，称为流域跟踪器。 该设备将允许学生收集真实世界的数据，以提高他们对流域动态的理解。具有温度，光线，湿度和土壤湿度传感器，分水岭跟踪器将被设计为通过所有这些设备通用的音频插孔连接到平板电脑和智能手机。

This project will develop curricula for environmental/geoscience disciplines for high-school classrooms. It will teach a systems approach to problem solving through hands-on activities based on local data and issues. This will provide an opportunity for students to act in their communities while engaging in solving problems they find interesting, and require synthesis of prior learning. The Model My Watershed (MMW) v2 app will bring new environmental datasets and geospatial capabilities into the classroom, to provide a cloud-based learning and analysis platform accessible from a web browser on any computer or mobile device, thus overcoming the cost and technical obstacles to integrating Geographic Information System technology in secondary education. It will also integrate new low-cost environmental sensors that allow students to collect and upload their own data and compare them to data visualized on the new MMW v2. This project will transform the ability of teachers throughout the nation to introduce hands-on geospatial analysis activities in the classroom, to explore a wide range of geographic, social, political and environmental concepts and problems beyond the project's specific curricular focus. The Next Generation Science Standards state that authentic research experiences are necessary to enhance STEM learning. A combination of computational modeling and data collection and analysis will be integrated into this project to address this need. Placing STEM content within a place- and problem-based framework enhances STEM learning. Students, working in groups, will not only design solutions, they will be required to defend them within the application portal through the creation of multimedia products such as videos, articles and web 2.0 presentations. The research plan tests the overall hypothesis that students are much more likely to develop an interest in careers that require systems thinking and/or spatial thinking, such as environmental sciences, if they are provided with problem-based, place-based, hands-on learning experiences using real data, authentic geospatial analysis tools and models, and opportunities to collect their own supporting data. The MMW v2 web app will include a data visualization tool that streams data related to the modeling application. This database will be modified to integrate student data so teachers and students can easily compare their data to data collected by other students and the government and research data. All data will be easily downloadable so that students can increase the use of real data to support the educational exercises. As a complement to the model-based activities, the project partners will design, manufacture, and distribute a low-cost environmental monitoring device, called the Watershed Tracker. This device will allow students to collect real-world data to enhance their understanding of watershed dynamics. Featuring temperature, light, humidity, and soil moisture sensors, the Watershed Tracker will be designed to connect to tablets and smartphones through the audio jack common to all of these devices.