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It is ironic that obsession with perfectionism in education will stifle learning through the abhorrence of mistakes,[...]
[Tom Lauer]
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Initiated by NCSA, RiverWeb leverages modeling, simulation, visualization and web technologies to prototype digital resources that promote inquiry among diverse audiences about river basin processes. Its mission: to promote citizen participation in watershed management and policy; and bridge environmental research with education, formal with informal learning, and government with citizenry.
Central to RiverWeb is construction of Digital River Basins (DRB), exploratoria in which vivid, dynamic, digital representations of river systems and processes can be investigated through novel display and interaction environments, accessible from museums, classrooms and the web.
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| Educators and cognitive researchers at Maryland Virtual High School, University of Maryland, and NCSA, are prototyping web-based simulations (WebSims) and evaluating their potential to enhance the science curriculum at the 8-12th grades. |
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Developed in partnership with NCSA as an initial prototype WebSim, the RiverWeb Water Quality Simulator (WQS) enables learners to investigate how land use and precipitation affects water quality within an archetypal watershed. An interactive tour introduces key operations and scientific concepts, and a digital notebook allows students to record observations and articulate hypotheses and explanations, and teachers to structure, scaffold, and assess student activities. |
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Through a major, three year grant from the National Science Foundation, NCSA and three Midwest museums are developing museum-based DRB's in which individuals or groups can visualize physical, biologic and cultural facets of the river and its floodplain. Large, horizontal displays linked to consoles will provide distinct views into digital stretches of river and floodplain, as well as virtual tools to navigate on or under the surface or across the landscape, and sample flow, depth, turbidity, sediment, and species abundances. An accompanying web site will support Internet access to selected DRB simulations and data resources, as well as other exploratory or learning activities. Consortium DRB products currently are under intensive development, and are expected to go "online" by next summer (2002). |
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NCSA, together with the Illinois State Museum and the University of Illinois History Department, has
completed a prototype web-based learning resource and CD-ROM on the history and archeology of the American Bottom
floodplain in the vicinity of East St. Louis. This online "landing site" is being used in undergraduate courses at the University of Illinois and Penn State. The content level is also appropriate for use in in the high school curriculum.
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