Abstract
The development of the successful “Science Through ARts” or
STAR Project (see Poskole 2003 papers) has given rise to a number of questions
regarding the need for teachers to have easy access to a wide range of appropriate
support materials. These resources are currently distributed across three
continents. This paper outlines one proposed solution to meeting teachers’
needs through Integrated Web Sites.
An international, cross-curricular exploration of Space Science, through on-line learning tools
International | Africa | Bangladesh | Chile | China | CzechMiranda | Japan | Macedonia | Mexico | MiraNet | MirandaNorth | Poland | Regional | Star | Taiwan | Thailand| UK-Japan Science | UK-China Links | USA
STAR | Presentation | Article | Integrated Web Sites | Online Discussions | Taiwan
Integrated Web Sites
Lawrence Williams
Assistant Head Teacher
The Holy Cross School*
Designated as a Specialist Science College
25 Sandal Road
New Malden
Surrey
KT3 5AN
United Kingdom (Download
this article as a Word Document)
*Note: The Holy Cross School has recently been designated as a specialist Science College, dedicated to developing best practice in ICT, Science and Mathematics education, and to sharing these ideas with the wider educational community.
The STAR Project is designed fundamentally to stimulate the interest of students of all ages in the learning of science. NASA web materials form the core of the actual knowledge, and as a development of the ICT pedagogy of The Holy Cross School, on-line communication tools, such as the web, video-conferencing, email and email attachments, become the practical means by which teachers and students share and develop their ideas. The actual pedagogy involved, however, is a cross-curricular learning approach that is not necessarily a method familiar to all teachers, especially at secondary level (post 11 years). The creation of multi-level lessons that support language and/or artistic learning, ICT skill development, and the understanding of science, simultaneously, is not easy. Finding appropriate international partners with whom to collaborate is another problem. For example, can potential school partners use IP or ISDN video-conferencing equipment?
The web sites carrying STAR have, quite naturally, been developing teaching materials according to the separate agendas of the individual, and autonomous, participants. Since various governments fund many of these sites, this is hardly surprising. The sites now include:
The NASA STAR web site (Cleveland, Ohio, USA) which provides structured and filtered access to the myriad NASA space science materials, and show-cases the learning outcomes:
- http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/STAR/main.htm
- http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/STAR/HolyCrossProjects.htm
MirandaNet houses papers explaining the pedagogy, and provides exemplary case study materials for teachers to consult, both for science education and for Global Citizenship:
- http://www.mirandanet.org.uk/publications/williams.htm
- http://www.mirandanet.org.uk/star/index.htm
- https://wec.mirandanet.org.uk/gallery/holycross/
- http://www.mirandanet.org.uk/ftp/newlearn.pdf
In Japan, there is the Global School Network (based in Osaka) that shares these ideas and teaching practices with Japanese teachers:
[gsnet01.schoolnet.gr.jp/gsnet/root.jsp?place=cases]
There are other sites, too, which teachers might well find supportive when seeking suitable international partners for STAR:
Global Leap is a web site that lists potential partners for international collaboration by giving details that include video-conferencing equipment:
[www.global-leap.com/directory]
The British Council is also doing valuable supportive work in this area, with its Windows on the World:
And there are numerous on-line British Council publications, which carry details of STAR and previous collaborative science project work:
[www.britishcouncil.org/education/sen/senpdf/sen157.pdf]
There is, however, an obvious need to integrate (or “interconnect”) these important web resources. This process has already begun in a number of ways:
NASA (USA) has kindly made several live links to the MirandaNet web site (UK), so that teachers can see the various case studies and pedagogical materials. These include links to STAR’s predecessor project, “Science, Creativity and the Young Mind”, held at Bristol University in the summer of 2001:
[www.clifton-scientific.org/j2001/lawrence.htm]
The Holy Cross case studies also form part of the Global Citizenship section of MirandaNet, now funded by the UK government. There are also links, created by Francis Howlett, within and between the three main sections of MirandaNet, as well as links back to STAR in Cleveland, and out to “Global School Network” (Japan). The “Global School Network” carries video clips of various collaborative projects undertaken between Ikeda Junior High School, Osaka, and The Holy Cross School. NASA has created links to “The Times Educational Supplement” materials, and the TES “Teacher” magazine in turn carries two articles about the STAR project. MirandaNet has links to BECTa publications about STAR, and BECTa has links back to MirandaNet. Clearly, all of this constitutes a powerful, though highly fragmented, learning support system, and one that urgently needs to be organised more effectively and rationally.
Accordingly, I have agreement from several of our educational partners that if The Holy Cross School develops a section of its own school web site (currently being expanded) specifically for this purpose, NASA and other partners will link directly into it. MirandaNet will do the same, as will the Global School Network in Japan. In this way, The Holy Cross School web site will become a new kind of International Web Junction for assisting teachers using STAR. The aim of this development is to provide a seamless and integrated support service for teachers who wish to use the NASA STAR web-based materials.
Through the development of the concept of Integrated Web Sites, teachers will be able, from the one main web site, to gain direct access:
- to the NASA STAR web materials (Cleveland)
- to information on the pedagogical background (London)
- to exemplary case study materials (Cleveland, London, Bristol, Coventry, Osaka)
- to relevant background publications (BECTa, The British Council, Routledge, TES)
- to government policy documents (for ICT in the UK, USA, Japan)
- to USA partner schools,
- to UK partner schools, and
- to Japanese partner schools.
All of this will necessarily be achieved while the various educational partners maintain complete autonomy over their own web sites.
Go to the Holy Cross School Integrated Web Site for more information.
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