@ 2000-4 Evaluation
The first year of Tidepools to Telecommunications was exciting
for students and advisors alike. Students learned to build web
pages, to use digital cameras, to work with CU-SeeMe technology,
to write e-mail messages to one another, and to begin to work
with practicing scientists. They also became familiar with planktonic
organisms, as well as with the common invertebrates and algae
species found on boat docks. Additionally, they learned techniques
for obtaining the physical data needed to help better interpret
the distribution of living species through time.
Once the conference began, the time lines and communication responsibilities
were such that it was impossible to make changes -- things just
kept moving. Thus, in terms of evaluation, it is critical to look
at some of the problems which arose, as well as ideas for future
work.
During the first year of the project, students were chosen to participate from Friday Harbor High School on the West Coast, as well as from both public and private high schools on the East Coast. Although the sample of students selected was representative of each location, there was quite a range in preparation and understanding. In the future, it is suggested that the science teachers from each coast , as well their students, need to be selected a year ahead of time to adequately prepare for the conference. During the preparatory time, individual school sites must spend one day per week working together -- both in terms of field data collection and analysis, as well as on internet and web site preparation.. Additionally, students should be assigned to research teams for the whole year, with each team consisting of some students from both coasts. The expectations will include students having homework assignments to share by e-mail, as well being able to continuously review data and literature from each coast. Then during the actual conference, these same groups of students will work together, and present their findings to one another (as well as to other students around the country) at the conclusion of the conference. Organizing in this way will facilitate more in-depth analysis during the year as well as during the conference, and it will result in a more critical review of later student "internet published" results.
Prior to the conference, the students and scientists at Friday
Harbor had worked with the Wright Center at Tufts University to
develop a time line which was posted on the web. As winter went
into spring, there was some concern about equipment, computer
support, and expertise of both students and advisors from the
Woods Hole site. Therefore, during this time Friday Harbor students
and advisors built web pages which were designed precisely for
data recording every two hours. The expectation was that Woods
Hole students would e-mail their raw data to the Friday Harbor
students, who would put it up on the web.
The Friday before the conference it became apparent that Woods
Hole would be able to supply a full lab with 10 computers, digital
cameras, and video-conferencing capability. Additionally, excellent
scientific and computer support personnel were being provided,
and the Woods Hole staff decided that students in the East should
collect all their own data and put up their own pages the second
day of the conference -- thus changing the schedule and organization.
During the conference itself, Friday Harbor stayed on two-hour
schedules with data
recorded in a set format, and Woods Hole worked one hour stations,
with a morning dedicated to organizing all the information into
a coherent whole. This can readily be observed by looking back
through the dock organisms, plankton, and physical data sections.
To further compound problems, Friday Harbor finished their data
collecting on the second morning, and students had to return to
classes before they had seen any of the total presentation from
Woods Hole which was put up on the web all at once at the completion
of the conference. (Time differentials were significant.) Also,
Woods Hole students became so engrossed in developing their web
pages, they had to literally be "kicked out" of the conference
without time for debriefing and analysis. Therefore, suggestions
for the future include a procedure somewhat like the one executed
at Woods Hole, but with each team composed of cross-country members,
and time built into the conference for the whole group to evaluate
and critique all other groups. Also, both a research scientist
and science teacher need to be assigned to each group.
A noticeable discrepancy existed between the role of advisors
on each coast and how this affected the recording of data. On
the West Coast, students all had prior experience working in the
marine environment, but during the conference, they were working
with the school librarian, one of the town web masters, and with
numerous research scientists from Friday Harbor Labs -- all of
whom graciously gave hundreds of hours of their time. The data
was collected, and recorded carefully and accurately, and always
under the direction of a scientist. (Please note the evaluation
of Dr.
Craig Staude from Friday Harbor labs at the conclusion of the
first day.)
On the East Coast, students came to the site with little or no
background in the marine sciences. The advisors included three
scientists from Woods Hole (two of whom were confined to the computer
room), and the individual science teachers from the students'
schools. Each student group was basically responsible for obtaining
and recording their own data, as well as writing the dialog and
placing all information on the web site the second day. In other
words, the Woods Hole site was much more of a student site, and
Friday Harbor site much more of a scientist site. In the future
it is again suggested groups work together from both coasts throughout
the year, so the end result will be a better mix of student/teacher/scientist
research.
An evaluation of Thursday's activities at Friday Harbor.
I should be in bed (gotta get up early tomorrow), but I wanted
to jot down some random thoughts on today's experience...
First of all it's clear that this is an excellent opportunity
for ourFriday Harbor students to get exposure to varied aspects
of marine biology in a "professional" setting. The students seem
to be enjoying the process,and are learning from the experience.
While data is sometimes the goal of science, it is not the main
goal here; the PROCESS is more important. Nevertheless the data
have been interesting. The diversity of organisms on the dock
tires is very rich. Our first team took almost the full two hours
to examine two tires! (The increasingly inclement weather reduced
the observation time of later teams!) The plankton changed throughout
the day: our midday tow was the richest (possibly due to the high
tide) and the late afternoon tow was full of silt and benthic
diatoms that had been suspended by the strong afternoon winds.
This silt was reflected in the secchi disk reading which decreased75%
!!!
We seem to be pushing our hardware to the limit by trying to accomodate
the "telecommunications" side of things. By 0900 this morning,
we had proved Murphy's Law several times over. We had a camera
fail, three of our four computers lock up, and the Global Schoolhouse
Reflector go down. Fortunately, we found a back-up camera, we
tweaked the memory allocation of the computers, and we switched
to our back-up reflector at MBL. More seriously, the network performance
of our entire Laboratories has suffered throughout the day. Our
network administrator is trying to maintain his sense of humor,
but he has serious reservations about the use of live video over
the internet especially with our limited (56K) band width. Perhaps
this is less of a problem at Woods Hole.
Well, good night. CU early tomorrow!
Access Excellence was an outstanding support base throughout the preparatory time
prior to the conference. Hundreds of teachers and their classes
became aware of Tidepools To Telecommunications and were able
to follow the preparation leading up to April 11. Other schools
were planning to participate on April 11-12 by the use of Global
School Net; however, this server went down during the first day
of the conference. Additionally, the news site server from Woods
Hole was placed into service the morning of the first day, and
there was no one assigned to keep it continually updated from
each coast. Technical problems were not as serious for conference
participants as many back-ups had been built into place; however,
in the future, it is imperative that backup systems are also employed
for the schools and students who are joining us as guest or off-site
participants.
Some suggestions for next year's conference have been listed above.
Additionally, we hope to involve Barbara Kolb, and her students
who are doing tropical biology research at St. John each year.
We will also involve many of the students and teachers who joined
us this year, as well as adding new groups. We would like your
comments and suggestions as we add more student data and curriculum
materials. One group we will be working with next year will be
the Global Laboratory Project.
Please e-mail to:
Mary Ann Church
Tidepools to Telecommunications
mchurch789@aol.com
Return to Tidepools to Telecommunications @ 2000 - 4 Archive Home
Page.