A Digital Learning Center for Microbial Ecology for K-12 Education

小行星9454825 微生物生态学数字学习中心将汇集科学家，教育工作者和多媒体设计师，以开发互动的，基于计算机的主动学习工具，激励学习者探索，发现，操纵和互动与整个环境中存在的微生物的微观世界。 我们的目的是激发对K-12科学教育中自然界微生物的认识，并为教师和学生提供可信和有效的学习工具，重点关注微生物生态学中心追求的具有广泛公众利益的主题，包括生物降解，微生物进化和生物多样性。微生物传统上被描绘成致病的“细菌”，但它们也在食品生产、废物处理和其他对地球生命延续至关重要的过程中发挥着许多有益的作用。 数字学习中心将通过互联网和CD-ROM向K-12教师和学生开放，利用CD-ROM传输大型交互式多媒体内容和优雅的用户界面的便利性，以及通过互联网访问可更新文本和多媒体信息以及电子邮件通信的便利性。 该中心的组成部分将包括： 微生物动物园-数字视频照片上不断增长的微生物集合，可以通过多媒体“动物园”界面进行探索，或作为链接文本，数据，图像和数字视频的多媒体数据库进行搜索和分类; 互动学习体验-多媒体互动软件模块，为教师提供学习体验，让学生参与微生物生态学科学的各个方面; 满足科学家-中心科学家的数字视频剪辑解释他们的研究和科学方面，他们发现迷人的，加上一个温和的公告板之间的学生，教师和科学家的沟通; 新闻中的微生物-新闻中的数字化印刷和电子故事，结合科学家的评论和主题课程计划，用于在与学生生活有关的背景下教授科学; 数字教学助理-使用数字学习中心进行教学和学习的建议和电子课程计划; 动手实验室资源-教师进行真实的世界实验的课程计划，学生在当地环境中体验动觉，嗅觉和科学探究的真实的时间过程;数字兴趣点-与微生物生态学相关的印刷，电子和软件信息资源的指针。 数字学习中心将作为一个试点项目，由科学家、教育工作者和多媒体设计师合作开发和提供K-12互动科学学习体验，最终可应用于所有NSF科学和技术中心的教育推广计划。

9454825 Heeter The Digital Learning Center for Microbial Ecology will bring together scientists, educators and multimedia designers to develop interactive, computer-based active learning tools that motivate learners to explore, discover, manipulate and interact with the microscopic world of organisms that exist throughout our environment. Our intent is to spark an awareness of microbes in nature for K-12 science education and to provide teachers and students with credible and effective learning tools which focus on themes pursued by the Center for Microbial Ecology which have broad public interest, including biodegradation, microbial evolution and biodiversity. Microbes have traditionally been portrayed in their role as disease-causing "germs," but they also play many beneficial roles as essential agents in food production, waste disposal, and other processes critical to the continuation of life on Earth. The Digital Learning Center will be accessible to K-12 teachers and students over the Internet and on CD-ROM, taking advantage of the ease of transporting large interactive multimedia content with elegant user interfaces via CD-ROM and the ease of updatable text and multimedia information access and electronic mail communication available over the Internet. Components of the Center will include: The Microbe Zoo - an ever-growing collection of microbes on digital video on photos which can be explored through a multimedia "zoo ' interface or searched and sorted as a multimedia database which links text, data, images and digital video; Interactive Learning Experiences - multimedia interactive software modules that provide teachers with learning experiences that can engage students with various aspects of the science of microbial ecology; Meet the Scientists - digital video clips of center scientists explaining in lay terms their research and aspects of science they find fascinating, plus a moderated bulletin board for communication among students, teachers and scientists; Microbes In The News - digitized print and electronic stories in the news, combined with commentary from scientists and topical lessons plans for teaching about science in contexts that relates to students' lives; Digital Teaching Assistant - suggestions and electronic lesson plans for using the Digital Learning Center for teaching and learning; Hands-On Laboratory Resources - lesson plans for teachers on conducting real world experiments where students experience kinesthetic, olefactory and real time process of scientific inquiry in their local environment; Digital Points of Interest - pointers to print, electronic and software information resources related to microbial ecology. The Digital Learning Center will serve as a pilot program for collaborative development and delivery of K-12 interactive science learning experiences by scientists, educators and multimedia designers that could ultimately be applied to all of the NSF Science and Technology Centers' Education Outreach Programs.