I-Corps L: A Cyberlearning System for Environmental Monitoring Education

这个I-Corps L项目将研究环境监测模块的潜力，这些模块由来自一个小城市流域的高频水和天气数据提供给9-12年级的学生。学习增强流域评估系统（LEWAS）是一个实时、高频（1-3分钟）的水和天气监测系统，其网络学习系统被称为在线流域学习系统（owl）。到2016年初，基于LEWAS/ owls的学习模块已经在至少17个不同的本科工程、科学和工业设计课程中使用，在三个国家的四所大学中使用了一门研究生水文学课程，在弗吉尼亚州的两所社区学院（弗吉尼亚西部大学和约翰泰勒大学）中使用了四门第一年的工程课程。LEWAS/ owl还被用于：一门高中课程，一个由美国国家科学基金会支持的肖托夸专业发展短期课程系列，以及弗吉尼亚理工大学校园内可供公众使用的交互式触摸屏显示器。这个I-Corps L项目建立在先前成功的国家科学基金资助成果的基础上，研究人员已经证明了在各种课程中成功地实施了基于LEWAS/ owls的学习模块。本研究使用情境学习的理论框架，表明在混合教学中使用owl作为远程实验室可以增加学生对环境监测概念的学习和动机。该团队建议调查潜在客户对将基于LEWAS/ owls的模块纳入9-12年级教学的兴趣。这些模块结合了通过计算理解、评估、创建和管理环境（水质、数量和天气）数据的理念，期望将这些模块整合在一起，从而广泛采用网络学习方法，培养9-12年级学生在环境监测和计算思维方面的技能。

This I-Corps L project will examine the potential of environmental monitoring modules informed by high frequency water and weather data from a small urban watershed for 9-12th-grade students. The Learning Enhanced Watershed Assessment System (LEWAS) is a real-time, high frequency (1-3 min.) water and weather monitoring system and its cyberlearning system is called the Online Watershed Learning System (OWLS). Through early 2016, the LEWAS/OWLS-based learning modules have been used in at least 17 different undergraduate university courses in engineering, sciences and industrial design, one graduate hydrology course across four universities in three countries and four first-year engineering courses across two community colleges (Virginia Western and John Tyler) in Virginia. The LEWAS/OWLS has also been used in: one high school course, an NSF-supported Chautauqua Professional Development Short Course Series and interactive touchscreen displays available to the public on the Virginia Tech campus. This I-Corps L project builds upon the outcomes of prior successful NSF grants in which the investigators have demonstrated successful implementation of the LEWAS/OWLS-based learning modules into various courses. This research, using the theoretical framework of situated learning, has shown that use of the OWLS as a remote lab within hybrid instruction increases students' learning of environmental monitoring concepts and motivation. The team proposes to investigate potential customer interest in incorporating the LEWAS/OWLS-based modules into 9-12 grade instruction. The expectation is that incorporation of these modules that combine the idea of understanding, evaluating, creating, and managing environmental (water quality and quantity and weather) data through computation will lead to wide-scale adoption of a cyberlearning approach for developing skills among 9-12th-grade students in environmental monitoring and computational thinking.