Imagine our local students and teachers working through the internet with schools around the world to compare their local lakes! LSPA’s education director Kathleen Stowell and June Fichter met with teachers from local schools and future teachers (education majors) from Colby Sawyer College to talk about using scientific lake data in the classroom. In attendance were two researchers who are part of a team working with LSPA to bring science to the public, supported by an NSF grant.
The team has been working on internet displays for the LSPA buoy data. (The buoy measures Lake Sunapee water temperature, dissolved oxygen, light energy and weather information.) The goal is to present this information in an easy to use, engaging and interactive manner. The researchers have been designing an interface that would allow users, including students and teachers, to manipulate live as well as historical data. Curricula can be planned around the data to enhance school programs. Students as young as 3rd graders would be able to look for lake data and learn what the numbers mean, or how and why they have changed. Older students could choose their data and design their own graphs.
The interactive features can be designed to encourage exploration while dovetailing with federal and state standards on science, math and technology. The teachers and future teachers had varied and expansive suggestions. Both the teachers and students were impressively computer and technology savvy. They suggested going beyond the classroom into pre-school and special education groups, and including a “Kid’s” section and helpful tutorials onto LSPA’s website. Adding tributary or stream data was discussed, so students could compare their own data on streams with the data collected by LSPA’s volunteers and scientists.
A project such as this will help classrooms increase students’ investigative skills, allowing them to query and think about real information about the world around them in real time. Eventually the website users, including the general public, will be able to compare and contrast local data with historical data and with the data from other lakes around the world. Geography will come into play, as well as cultural and watershed similarities and differences. Imagine a Newport student networking with a student in Taiwan or Norway, each discussing their lake data findings! Or a Skype conference with teachers from Warner and Sweden or China on watershed impacts! We expect the interactive website will act as a catalyst in classrooms and in living rooms, enhancing the understanding of what’s happening in the local and global natural world.
Date published on web site:
03-25-2009
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