Creating Environmentally Wired Kids through the Use of Wireless Technology
David E Smith
Department of Environmental Sciences
The goal of this project is to merge secondary school environmental education with research using innovative wireless technology on the Virginia’s Eastern Shore. We propose to use a novel Internet technology (spread-spectrum wireless technology) to provide engaging, "virtual" field trips and research activities for middle and high school science students with the ultimate objective of keeping these students’ scientific imagination piqued as they prepare for college and careers.
This proposal builds on a successful and proven partnership between the middle and high schools in Northampton County and the University of Virginia. Consequently, it will directly benefit the teachers and students of Northampton County, the second poorest county in the Commonwealth. Our research indicates that of the students currently in the high school in Northampton, less than 50% have ever seen a real barrier island in spite of the fact that they live on the coast and are within 7 km of a relatively pristine and quite dynamic barrier island habitat.
Just as important, this successful project will serve as a unique example and model for the entire state and country of how technology and education can be coupled to enhance environmental literacy at the pre-college level. Imagine the opportunities of using wireless, interactive audio/video transmission via a common web-based interface in other rugged and inaccessible environments such as the tundra in Alaska, the grasslands of the mid-west, or the deserts of the southwest. All these environments currently have associated with them other Long-Term Ecological Research Programs operated by other universities. The 24 US LTERs throughout the country maintain an active network for the exchange of information. As part of this network, educators from all these sites meet annually to discuss their interactions with the local school systems near their sites. It is our desire and goal to share our experience with this active group of professionals and to assist in the creation of similar infrastructure enhancements to assure a multiplier effect once we have successfully completed this proposed project. It is our belief that this proposed activity is in fact unique and groundbreaking, and offers both the Virginia Environmental Endowment and the University of Virginia an opportunity to exercise significant leadership in the area of pre-college environmental literacy! Hey, kids count.
More information at www.evsc.virginia.edu
Project Sponsored By: Virginia Environmental Endowment
Start Date: 9/1/2002
- End Date: 8/31/2005
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