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Science, Computers, Communication, and the Environment
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John W. Moore
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706-1396 |
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This issue is out of print. |
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Computers are marvelous tools that we can use in a variety of ways to enhance education. Although computers were initially thought of primarily as number crunchers, communication--transfer of information--is really what they are about, and communication is a prerequisite to education. Current interest in the Internet, in computer-telephone systems, in satellite transmission of data, and in other combinations of computers and communications systems will soon translate into even greater opportunities for improved education than computers alone have provided. The GLOBE program is one example of this potential. The vision for GLOBE was stated by Vice President Al Gore in his book Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (1): "I propose a program that will use school teachers and their students to monitor the entire earth." During the past few months GLOBE has begun to set up a network of students throughout the world who will
The GLOBE program will employ an international information network that will support acquisition of data by students, transmission of data to processing sites, distribution of graphical representations of the world's environment to students, and distribution of student data to environmental scientists worldwide. Initially the network will make use of the Internet, direct satellite transmission, and television. Students will measure air, water, and soil temperatures; pH; ozone concentrations; and other physical, chemical, and biological parameters. Participating schools will be selected partly on the basis of the scientific value of having such parameters measured at a particular geographic location. Having many students collect data and then pooling the results is not a new idea. Often such data can provide a wealth of scientifically useful information. An example is a data set of pH values of rainfall in the U.S. that I have often used as an introduction to a discussion of acid rain. As far as I can tell, data collected by a large number of middle-school students using pH indicator paper faithfully parallels data collected at much more technically advanced monitoring stations. The student-collected data have the advantage that many more sites are represented. Even with less precision per site the overall result gives a better picture of the geographic extent of the problem than does the monitoring-station data. Technology that is currently available allows us to go far beyond the acid-rain dataset that I use. That dataset resulted from a one-time collection of one type of data by students in one country. The GLOBE project envisions continuing collection of many types of data by students in more than 40 countries. In addition satellite and network communication will allow all students who collect data (and potentially many, many more) to see graphical representations of the entire dataset from around the world, and to do so almost immediately after the data are obtained and reported. Moreover, GLOBE will enable students from a variety of cultures to discuss those data and their implications, and to compare interpretations that may depend significantly on cultural background. The opportunities for enhancing all kinds of education, not just science education, are myriad. Each of us has some facilities of the sort envisioned for GLOBE, and each of us can use them to at least some extent. My first-year college students, for example, are now communicating with me and turning in written reports via electronic mail--and also communicating with other students at campuses in the U.S. and several other countries. Undergraduate students are also much more literate than I am about library searches by computer on a network. Bibliographies now start out on a computer screen rather than on 3 5 cards. They are using computers to collect laboratory data, to analyze data of all kinds, to create graphic representations of those data, and to prepare reports on what they have found. These are all activities that chemists of all kinds are called upon to deal with in everyday work. The more of them that students are familiar with, the more effectively they will be able to deal with whatever kind of employment they find in an information-rich society. It is our aim at JCE: Software to try to provide as much help as we can for anyone who wants to provide students with opportunities to use modern information technology. We are pleased that we can publish experiments, such as KineticsLab in this issue, that make use of computer tools. We are developing a presence on the Internet that will make a great deal of useful information available electronically. We publish computerized indexes (2) that can be used as a training ground for student literature searches as well as by teachers who want to find specific information. We are experimenting with technology that will allow us to publish the Journal of Chemical Education in completely electronic form, as a hypertext. All of these efforts will ultimately contribute to better communication among students, among teachers, and among members of both groups. Like the GLOBE project, this is a major task, but it is one that we believe is well worth the effort expended. We invite your participation and communication.
Literature Cited
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Last Updated: April 26, 2001 Created: December 3, 1996 |
Created by: J. L. Holmes Comments to: jceonline@chem.wisc.edu |
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| © 1997 Division of Chemical Education, Inc., American Chemical Society. All rights reserved. | |