From: BBracey@aol.com
Subject: More Mars stuff
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 19:30:29 -0400 (EDT)
A project, Passport Mars, was created with input from science teachers and uses links to expert scientists and NASA's Live From Mars Web site. The interactive projects will be available on CCCnet, an award-winning education site on the World Wide Web (www.cccnet.com) and was previewed this week at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) in New Orleans. CCC, the leading provider of educational software and services to the school market, is committed to exploring new ways to use the Internet and leveraging partnerships with teachers and other experts to make CCCnet the most powerful online curriculum resource available. To create Space, CCC formed partnerships with science teachers from Super Collider Opportunities for Education (SCOPE) and NASA's Life Sciences Division's Outreach Program. Space follows education standards from the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). "This is the most teacher-friendly and educationally sound online science resource I have seen," said Barry Rose, sixth-grade science teacher at Kent Elementary School in Carrollton, Texas and a SCOPE teacher member. "I am excited to be part of creating such an innovative educational project." Unique to Space is its "Activity Bank," which provides offline activity ideas developed by SCOPE teachers. Open for contribution from teachers participating in CCCnet, this resource is designed to supplement the CCCnet project in teaching students about Mars. Available the first week of May 1997, the Space thematic unit provides 40 hours of easily-integrated classroom instruction and is CCCnet's sixth theme since the launch of the educational Web site in 1996. Passport Mars, accounting for 20 hours, can be used as a whole or broken into parts for teaching lessons on chemistry, biology, or geology. "Passport Mars really brings the flexibility of a Web-based education program to life through its teacher resources and interactive content," said Lori McBride, CCC vice president of New Media Markets. "It also takes advantage of the educational aspects of the Web by putting leading-edge resources such as expert scientists and real pictures of Mars at the fingertips of students." Passport Mars Passport Mars, Space's main project, takes students on a virtual trip to Mars. After landing, students participate in a series of chemistry, biology and geology investigations to form their opinions as to whether life could exist on the planet. The geology project allows students to use the Web to design telerobotic vehicles (TRVs) suitable for Martian terrain and test them on various types of soil. To help guide the tour, each student is issued a "Passporter," a futuristic interface that students personalize for their team. The Passporter prompts navigation throughout the project and tracks progress at every stage. As part of the main project, students can post questions and receive answers online from expert scientists. Also, students are directed to view specific photographs and other information on Mars through various NASA Web sites, including Live From Mars, the Mars Pathfinder mission and the Mars Global Surveyor mission. Extra Textual To complement Passport Mars, a second project titled Extra Textual uses science fiction to teach students about story plots as an element of writing. Students link to the Web site of popular science fiction writer Octavia Butler to read a short story and identify plot lines. Students may also participate in "Cosmic Threads," an online activity where students write and publish different paragraphs to a collaborative, ongoing story. Partnering with SCOPE SCOPE is a project created to address current challenges of science education. It operates within the Texas Center for Education Technology (TCET) at the University of North Texas and is sponsored by the Department of Energy, corporate partners and 10 partner school districts.