Internet2 K-12 Application
Geoscience with World Geography
An Interdisciplinary Course

Overview

The state of Virginia has recently mandated a single credit of World Geography as a graduation requirement for all students in the school system. This requirement, however, will likely reduce certain science class enrollments since students now have fewer elective choices available. An integrated course that teaches World Geography within the framework of a science class, such as Earth Science, Geoscience or even Computer Science, would be one way to maintain the strength in science education while meeting objectives for World Geography at the same time.

Interdisciplinary Curriculum and the Internet

There are a number of popular science courses taught in Virginia that would mesh nicely with the World Geography curriculum. The most appropriate would be either 12th grade Geoscience, a graduation requirement at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, or 9th grade Earth Science that is taught in so many other schools. An integrated course combining learning objectives from either of these classes with objectives from World Geography is a natural pairing for an interdisciplanary collaboration. The Internet is a perfect medium in which to teach such a course at some point after 8th grade, especially since students should have already mastered Virginia Standards of Learning objectives in Computer Use and Technology. Currently, there are few places where these SOL objectives are being reinforced in the high school curriculum. In addition, the high speed Internet2 will eventually become an available resource in many high schools, thus leading to an even richer learning environment available to such a class.

A Partnership with Computer Science

It is also conceivable that Computer Science could be included in the partnership, especially since the Advanced Placement Computer Science program will be changing to Java in the year 2003. At Jefferson, we could include a partnership with Computer Science so that students in the interdisciplinary course could learn simple Java syntax needed for the APCS class and at the same time write programs to support the Geoscience curiculum. Students could also use Java skills in various web-based applications and presentations required for Internet-based activities that might be designed for World Geography.

TerraVision - The Driving Force for Collaboration

Software designers at SRI International have developed a valuable new terrain visualization plugin for Netscape that could pull these courses together. Originally designed for the next generation Internet2, this software is called Digital Earth - TerraVision.

During the Department of Education sponsored Symposium on Improving Learning with Information Technology held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. (January 24 - 25, 2001), staff members from SRI demonstrated the Digital Earth software. The application seemed to this observer to be extremely powerful, but the company did not yet seem to have that "killer application" at the K-12 level. However, their program could be just the tool to unite World Geography and Geoscience into one extremely powerful and alluring interdisciplianry course. The following are some suggested links to the SRI site that might highlight the power of their utiliy:

Educational Objectives

To satisfy the Standards of Learning Objectives for the following two courses:

The course could also be used to develop a Java-based introduction to computer skills that will be required in the following course:

Advanced Placement Computer Science.

Curriculum and Tools Development

This course has the potential to serve as pioneer in the development of K-12 database related tools that support not only Earth Science and World Geography, but a broad spectrum of classes dealing with global issues. Digitized sound and video could be indexed to regions of the globe such that students who might be viewing the terrain of some foreign country would also have easy access to cultural and historical resources too. A number of Digital Resource Centers already exist, and this project could further unite them by indexing this material to a global positioning scheme.

Example Acivities

To be completed...

NSF Grant Possibilities

The National Science Foundation might fund a grant application to pursue the development of this interdisciplinary course. The potential for wide spread use is high, not just in Fairfax County Public Schools, one of the largest school districts in the country, but throughout the state of Virginia as well as school districts everywhere in the US.
To be completed...

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