US-Southern Africa Cooperative Research: International Distance Learning on the Environment of Southern Africa

[0115438] macko该奖项支持由弗吉尼亚大学（UVA）、莫桑比克的爱德华多·蒙德兰大学（UEM）和南非的威特沃特斯兰德大学（WITS）开展的为期一年的环境科学国际远程学习项目试点项目。每一所参加的大学将通过卫星广播传送一些研讨会（弗吉尼亚大学六次，牛津大学和武汉大学各两次）。南部非洲已经并将继续经历大规模的土地利用/土地覆盖变化，这主要是由于人类对环境的干预造成的。这些变化可能在区域、大陆和全球范围内产生环境影响。环境教育对于理解这些对全球环境和美国环境的影响至关重要。这个试点项目将探索通过一个基于卫星的环境科学系列研讨会，让美国和南部非洲的本科生和研究生接触到前沿技术和科学内容的可行性。研讨会广播将使美国学生能够直接接触区域专家讲师和非洲学生并与之互动。美国和非洲学生还将使用弗吉尼亚大学提供的课堂互联网工具，通过互联网相互交流。预计该项目将通过利用伙伴大学内现有的广泛学术优势，促进关于区域系统一级环境问题的知识和信息的转让。它还有望帮助在美国和南部非洲培养面向国际的一代年轻环境科学家。预计将有100名来自弗吉尼亚大学的本科生和20名研究生以及大约40名来自南部非洲的学生参加这些研讨会。该项目还包括美国调查人员对南部非洲的访问，以及UEM和WITS的代表对UVA的访问，以协作投入和评估该计划。

0115438Macko This award supports a pilot program for a one-year international distance learning project in the environmental sciences to be conducted by the University of Virginia (UVA), the University of Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) in Mozambique, and the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) in South Africa. Each participating university will transmit some of the seminars via satellite broadcast (six from UVA and two each from UEM and WITS).Southern Africa has undergone and continues to experience large-scale land use/land cover changes largely brought about by human intervention with the environment. These changes can have environmental repercussions at the regional, continental, and global scales. Environmental education is essential for understanding these impacts on the global environment, and on the environment of the United States. This pilot project will explore the feasibility of exposing US and Southern African undergraduate and graduate students to leading edge technology and scientific content through a satellite-based seminar series in the environmental sciences. The seminar broadcasts will enable US students to have direct exposure to and interaction with regional expert lecturers and African students. The US and African students will also interact with each other through the internet, using the classroom internet tools provided by UVA. This project is expected to foster the transfer of knowledge and information on regional system level environmental problems by harnessing the existing broad spectrum of academic excellence within the partner universities. It is also expected to help create an internationally oriented generation of young environmental scientists in both the United States and Southern Africa. It is anticipated that up to 100 undergraduate and 20 graduate students from UVA will participate in these seminars, as well as approximately 40 students from Southern Africa. The project also includes visits by the US investigators to Southern Africa and visits by representatives from UEM and WITS to UVA for collaborative input to and evaluation of the program.