Simulating real science: new online resource for teachers
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Students and teachers have the opportunity to taste 'real science' in action thanks to a new online collaboration between NASA and Macquarie University.
The NASA/Macquarie University Pilbara Education Project uses a suite of high-tech NASA Learning Technologies to take users on a virtual field trip of Western Australia's Pilbara region. It allows them to study fossils using virtual laboratory tools and compare the environments of the Pilbara and on Mars.
"The project provides a unique opportunity to utilise tools developed by the space program for school educational purposes," says Carol Oliver, Assistant Director (Management and Outreach) of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at Macquarie University. "As a result we co-developed with NASA the Virtual Field Trip tool. The aim of the project is to simulate how science is done in the real world, allowing students and other users to gather their own evidence and come up with their own scientifically-based conclusions on a real and controversial topic."
The website
A Wiki site (http://pilbara.mq.edu.au) introduces students and teachers to the project and gives background scientific information. From there, users can link to a number of NASA learning tools.
World Wind lets students zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth, and to locate the Pilbara as well as access geological, topographic, gravity and magnetic maps of the area. Leveraging Landsat satellite imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data, World Wind allows users to experience Earth terrain in visually rich 3D, just as if they were really there.
The Virtual Field Trip will let students explore the Pilbara, where 3.5 billion-year-old fossilised layered materials formed by microbial organisms - known as stromatolites - are believed to be evidence of the oldest known life on Earth. Students can tour the location where the stromatolites are found via 360-degree footage of the site, access videos where experts explain what the students see, note points of interest, and jump from one location to another as they explore.
Virtual Lab, a suite of simulated microscopes, allows users to study the stromatolites. Actual samples from a 3.5-billion-year-old stromatolite are provided, including one that allows individual elements to be picked out visually and in graph form at micron levels.
What's the Difference? also helps users compare the modern and ancient environments of the Pilbara and Mars. Studying the stromatolite fossils and their environment could provide vital information for the search for life on Mars.
The future of science education
"The site clearly demonstrates that science is not a fixed thing as textbook study implies to students," says Oliver. "It also makes full use of the multi-tasking technological environment that today's high school students feel entirely comfortable in. This is a first step into the future of science education.
"In an increasingly science and technology-based society it is vital to develop new approaches to learning that will reverse current trends away from science and improve scientific literacy in the future adult population."
For further information, visit the website http://pilbara.mq.edu.au or email Carol Oliver carol.oliver@mq.edu.au