Editor's note: Thanks to the author for submitting this manuscript in HTML format.

Incorporating the World Wide Web in the Science Classroom

by
Alec M. Bodzin,
Department of Math, Science, and Technology Education,
North Carolina State University,
E-mail: ambodzin@unity.ncsu.edu
 

The World Wide Web (Web or WWW) has emerged as a superb resource for the K-12 science education classroom. It provides students and teachers access to current scientific data and resources, including databases, satellite data, museums, online libraries, research institutions, and other science classrooms all over the world. Students can now experience live scientific explorations at remote sites, and interact with scientific researchers in the field who serve as mentors and guide them through their scientific endeavors. Teachers and students communicate ideas and share resources through e-mail, chat areas, and CU-See Me video conferencing. Teachers can take students on virtual field trips to research centers and science museums located thousands of miles away from their classrooms. The Web also provides a place where students can publish their work online for other students and teachers to read and respond.

The Web is a powerful new tool that facilitates the learning process. On the Web, teachers can access and download quicktime movies, interactive panoramic pictures, animations, audio and graphics to enhance their curricula. These Web features are fantastic resources that can not be found in traditional science textbook. Pictures can be used by teachers to make overhead transparencies for their classroom lectures. Animations can be viewed by students to facilitate learning about difficult scientific processes such as chemical bond formation. Movies filmed with electron microscopes can now be downloaded into the classroom for students to see. On the Web you can get a variety of freeware helper applications and "plug-ins" such as Sparkle, ShockWave, MoviePlayer, Quicktime Virtual Reality Player (QTVR), and HyperStudio player and plug-in which make using the latest web enhancements easy and user-friendly to utilize in the classroom. 

A classroom need not be connected to the Internet (via phone/modem or direct connection) to use Web resources. WebWhacker is a software tool that has made this possible. WebWhacker downloads single web pages, groups of web pages, or entire web sites, including their text, graphics, movies, animations, and links to other web sites. WebWhacker stores these "whacked" web pages on a computer's desktop. The "whacked" web pages can then be placed into files and transported from one computer to another. If a school has only one connection to the WWW, a teacher can save the web resources needed for his/her classroom from the connected computer to a diskette. The diskette can then be inserted into the classroom computer for students to access the downloaded WWW resources.
 
 

The remainder of this article contains summaries of good science resources on the Web that can be incorporated into various science curricula.


 

Netspedition Amazon
http://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/ netspedition

Netspedition Amazon is an interactive scientific expedition to the Amazon rain forest. A research team from Imperial College originally conducted this study live on the internet. Included at this web site are a limnological study of the upper Orinoco River system, a butterfly biodiversity study, an insect survey, interactive maps of the area, and daily logs of the research team.

The limnological study describes the physical characteristics of the river system, the distribution of the chemical constituents that influence the biogeochemistry of the river system, and the biological productivity of the river ecosystem. Data is posted for eleven chemical tests (including pH, dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, and others) from twenty different sampling sites. The researchers provide a good discussion of their sampling methods and instruments. The limnological sampling data can be used in the science classroom to compare local water sources to the riverine data of the Amazon. Students can also use graphing techniques to compare and analyze different chemical constituents from different areas of the Orinoco river.

The butterfly biodiversity study observed behaviors for butterfly species that fed exclusively on rotting fruits and other organic matter. The website uses pictures of a variety of species to illustrate taxonomic differences among the butterflies in the study. As with the limnological study, the researchers provide a good discussion of their sampling technique and use of equipment. This study can be used in the classroom to illustrate habitat preferences of different butterfly species in the Amazon rainforest.

The researchers also show the results of their insect survey. Graphics and taxonomic nomenclature are provided for the insects that were surveyed. This survey can enhance a unit on taxonomy or a study involving comparisons of insects from different habitats.


 

TerraQuest
http://www.terraquest.com/

The TerraQuest website is a unique virtual field trip that enables students to retrieve information from remote sites such as the Galapagos and Antarctica and communicate with online researchers in the field. It contains all the information, data, and "net-happenings" that were collected during the actual expeditions of Virtual Galapagos and Virtual Antarctica. TerraQuest also contains a conferencing/chat area for students to communicate with the researchers during their expeditions.

Virtual Galapagos was an interactive study of the Galapagos Islands. The "Atlas" section of the web site contains QTVR panoramic views taken from the islands, interactive clickable island maps, and an area describing the physical characteristics and the plant life of the islands. Detailed discussions of geological features such as volcanoes and erosion are also found here. Web links to the Charles Darwin Research Center take teachers and students to pages where they can learn about biological issues such as species introduction, marine harvesting, and population pressures, currently being researched at this facility.

The "Wildlife" section of Virtual Galapagos contains a variety of resources appropriate for the study of various biological topics, including evolution, zoology, taxonomy, and ecology. This area of the web site contains discussions and photos of a variety of different island species, coastal zone species, and marine species. Emphasis is placed on taxonomy and the niche of the organisms. One area in the Wildlife section is solely devoted to evolution and Darwin's finches. Quicktime movies of some species are also available. The researchers from Virtual Galapagos have archived their daily dispatches during the "live event". These daily dispatches describe biological observations of both the biotic and abiotic factors of the Galapagos ecosystem.

Virtual Antarctica is an excellent resource for studying the ecology of Antarctica. It presents an interesting section for students to learn about everything that is involved with mounting an expedition to Antarctica, including route maps, itinerary, equipment, and satellite communication. The "Science" section contains detailed descriptions of the marine and terrestrial environments. Animal populations are presented with information on their behavior, breeding, locomotion, and taxonomic nomenclature. The "Science" section also contains information on Antarctic geography, geology, climate, snow and ice, and southern skies. The "Ecology" section presents important ecological issues involved in Antarctic research, including krill harvesting, global warming, and ozone depletion.

VolcanoWorld
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu

VolcanoWorld is an outstanding resource for any earth science classroom interested in learning about volcanoes. This web site contains real-time volcano information including an interactive clickable map of active volcanoes world-wide and remote sensing satellite images. Topics covered at VolcanoWorld include how volcanoes work, submarine volcanoes, planetary volcanoes, career information on becoming a volcanologist, volcanic parks and monuments, and volcano exploration on the moon, Mars, and Venus. It contains an area where students can post questions to a volcanologist, and also many interactive lesson plans and experiments including building a variety of different types of volcanoes. Teachers can also download a collection of interactive HyperStudio lessons on volcanoes from this web site.
 

Project Athena
http://www.athena.ivv.nasa. gov/index.html

Project Athena contains science curriculum lesson plans that use remote-sensing data, Quicktime movies, and data sets containing current scientific information relating to oceans, the atmosphere, earth resources, and space/astronomy for teaching scientific concepts to students of all ages. This web site serves as a good model for developing lesson plans using Internet science resources. The lessons plans at Project Athena include hands-on activities and projects to do in the classroom for a variety of science curricular topics. Examples include using drifter buoy data to learn how oceanographers measure the ocean currents using spreadsheets and graphs of data plots, describing and tracking actual hurricanes using quicktime movies and satellite image maps, and comparing the weather in your city with "live Cams" placed all over the country. Each of the lesson plans contains many topic-related resource links on the WWW.
 

The GLOBE Program
http://www.globe.gov/

The GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) Program is a world-wide network of students, teachers, and scientists engaged in a tele-collaboration project to do meaningful real-life science. In the GLOBE Program, students make environmental observations and report their data findings on the internet. Scientists use the students' data to formulate atmospheric models, then provide feedback to the students. The measurements conducted by the students include air temperature, precipitation, cloud observations, surface water temperature and pH, soil moisture, biometrics, land cover assessment, and species identification. Students also share findings and communicate with other students using e-mail from the web site. GLOBE includes excellent descriptions of equipment and procedures for data acquisition and a user-friendly searchable data archive. The unique aspect of the GLOBE Program is that students are interactive partners with scientists.
 

Exploratorium
http://www.exploratorium.edu

The Exploratorium web site contains a collection of virtual interactive exhibits, presentations, activities, and science news from the Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco, California. For example, it contains a unique step-by-step virtual "Cow-Eye Dissection" that includes graphics and Real Audio sound. An area is dedicated to provide teachers with ideas on how to obtain cow eyes for dissection and helpful hints on conducting the actual dissection with students in the classroom. The Exploratorium also contains "Live Cams" and virtual cameras of their exhibits, Doppler effects sounds, and a variety of interactive exhibits that can be brought into the classroom to enrich the existing biology and physical science curricula.
 

Cockroach World
http://www.nj.com/yucky/ro aches/index.html

Cockroach World is an interactive web site that makes learning about cockroaches fun and interesting. This web site contains many cockroach facts, including an area describing cockroach anatomy with quality graphics. A multimedia library, includes downloadable Quicktime movies and audio recordings of different cockroach species. This web site includes an area where students can post online questions to Betty, the"Bug Lady". Students are also encouraged to write "Tall Tales" about cockroaches and to submit their stories to an archive at the web site. This web site is a good source of information for a class learning about insects.
 

The Why Files
http://whyfiles.news.wisc.edu/

The Why Files web site focuses on the theme of the "science behind the news." Every two weeks, a new Why File is posted that deals with a current events issue in the news that involves science. Topics vary across all the science disciplines. Examples include cigarette smoking, airplane safety, viral outbreaks, and biological processes relating to fear. Each Why File contains graphics, audio, and links to related resource sites on the Web. This web site presents science curricular topics relevant to current events. All past Why Files are archived and can be accessed with a user-friendly search engine. This web site also contains areas on sports science and "cool science images."
 

The Hillsdale-Lenawee-Monroe (HLM) Math/Science Center
http://limc.lisd.K12.mi.us/

The HLM Math/Science Center web site provides an excellent water quality studies section that describes the Southeast Michigan Watershed Project. Included is an on-line tutorial for water chemistry that presents procedures and methods for conducting water quality tests and then analyzing the test results. A variety of chemical tests and equipment are presented with photo illustrations. This is a valuable resource for ecology teachers who are interested in conducting water quality tests on a nearby watershed with their students. The Southeast Michigan Water Project is a model of a collaborative research experience for schools that share a common watershed area. The HLM web site also contains information on teacher grants, links to on-line images, a section on Michigan frogs, and a variety of web links to topic-related science resources on the WWW.
 

MIMS (Midlands Improving Math and Science) Hub
http://scssi.scetv.org/mims

The MIMS Hub web site is an excellent resource for science teachers using the Web. Its database of over 500 annotated science and math web resources, can be accessed by a keyword search or by searching within one of 18 categories. The web resource annotations are written by classroom teachers. Each entry links to the web site it describes. The MIMS Hub also contains many science lesson plans accessible on the Web. It also includes a variety of different telecommunications opportunities for science teachers and their students; these include lists of science and math listservs with direct links and instructions on how to subscribe to them, "keypal" opportunities to connect a classroom to other classrooms around the world, announcements of current telecommunications "happenings" involving science and math on the Internet, and problem solving puzzles.
 

Chemistry Multimedia
http://www.ncl.ox.ac.uk/ quicktime/index.html

This web site contains a downloadable collection of quicktime movies of chemical animations such as catalytic reactions and 3-D molecules. These are good resources for chemistry teachers to use in their classrooms to facilitate the learning of chemical processes including bond formations and chemical structures.

Molecule of the Month
http://www.bris.a c.uk/Depts/chemistry/MOTM/motm.htm

This web site highlights the complete chemistry of a different molecule each month. An archive of past month's molecules are included. The resources include 3-D molecular images, animations, and graphics that can be used by chemistry teachers to explain different physical and chemical properties of molecules.
 

Weathernet
http://cirrus.sprl.u mich.edu/wxnet/tropical.html

Weathernet is an excellent resource for teachers incorporating atmospheric studies into their curriculum. This web site contains a variety of weather maps, including satellite image maps, surface maps, and contour maps. The Hurricane Tracker within Weathernet contains quicktime movies and satellite images of many hurricanes that have formed in the last few years. This web site also provides real time atmospheric data.

Natural History of Genes
http://raven.umnh.utah.edu

The Natural History of Genes web site from the Utah Museum of History provides genetics teaching kits on the Web. Included are classroom activities, on-line resources and textbooks, and software to download. The topics include introduction to DNA, disease, conservation, human diversity, and forensics. There is a very interesting section on building your own genetics lab equipment that many teachers on a tight budget will find useful. Lots of graphics and meaningful simulations make this web site a valuable resource for biology teachers.

Access Excellence
http://www.gene.com:80/ae/

This WWW resource contains a large collection of biology activities and classroom projects developed by biology and life science teachers. There is an area at this web site devoted to on-line collaborative research between biology teachers and researchers. Teachers can receive updates on topics related to the teaching and learning of the biological sciences and discuss new fields of study in contemporary biology. Access Excellence also contains a database of interesting science factoids that can be used to enhance any science classroom.
 

Monarch Watch
http://monarch.bio.ukans.edu/

Monarch Watch involves students in studying the seasonal migration of the Monarch butterfly. The web site contains background information on the Monarchs, instructions and procedures for tagging them, maps of Monarch sightings, and classroom activities that involve Monarch migration simulations and problem solving.
 

WhaleNet
http://whale.wheelock.edu

WhaleNet is a collaborative project of the biology departments at Wheelock College and Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts. It is an educational site focusing on whales and whale research, the marine habitat, and environmental studies. Students are encouraged to ask researchers questions on-line in the "Ask a scientist" area. WhaleNet contains the Satellite Tagging Observation Program (STOP). The STOP program electronically tracks whales to study their movements and migrations. STOP includes data and observations including satellite tracking maps. Teachers are able to download a variety of tracking maps for use in their classrooms. This web site also contains classroom activities relative to the whales and their marine habitat. Collaboration among worldwide classrooms is encouraged with an on-line listserv at the WhaleNet web site.
 
 

Summary

The curricular resources on the Web have the potential for transforming the science classroom into a more active learning environment that engages students in "doing science" with current scientific data. Many schools have the necessary equipment to incorporate these Web resources into their curricula. These innovations in the classroom present new areas for future research studies. There is a need for studies to determine how science teachers are effectively using resources on the World Wide Web in their classroom curricula. In addition, there is a need for studies to investigate if incorporating the Web into the science classroom actually promotes inquiry learning. The findings from such studies might provide evidence on the effectiveness of this medium for improving science learning in our K-12 schools.
 
 
 

Glossary:

K-12: Grade level divisions in the American education system.

e-mail: Electronic mail on the Internet. Internet e-mail is delivered in seconds, even to other continents.

chat areas: Just like the telephone, the Internet supports interactive, real-time discussions between users. Users usually log onto special computers and join discussions already in progress.

CU-See Me: Live conferencing software with video and audio exchange. A tool that exchanges real-time audio with one or more other users on the Internet.

helper applications: Software applications which allow a Web browser such as Netscape Navigator to handle the various formats of text and multimedia objects you will encounter while surfing the Internet.

plug-ins: Software programs that extend the capabilities of a web browser such as Netscape Navigator in a specific way - giving you, for example, the ability to play audio samples or view video movies from within the Web browser.

Sparkle: A software application that plays MPEG movies and can convert them to QuickTime movies. It uses the standard QuickTime movie controller as its interface.

ShockWave: The Macromedia Shockwave Plug-in allows a user to view animations directly from a Web browser such as Netscape Navigator without having to download large files.

MoviePlayer: A software application which allows you to play a wide variety of quicktime movies that you can download off of the Internet.

Quicktime Virtual Reality Player: A software application used to experience a 3D photographic or rendered representation of any person, place or thing. Users can rotate objects, zoom in or out of a scene, look around 360 degrees, and navigate from one scene to another.
 

WWW helper applications download web sites:

Web Whacker - http://www.ffg.com/whacker.html
Real Audio - http://www.realaudio.com/
Hyperstudio plug-in - http://www.hyperstudio.com/
Apple Quicktime Virtual Reality - http://qtvr.quicktime.apple.com/
Web browser helper applications -http://www.unl.edu/webs at/tools.html#browsers
PC Helper Applications - http://www.blueberry. co.uk/TOWER-PCHelpers.html
Internet software - http://www.skn.net/essen.html
Applenet - http://applenet.apple.com/
Boxtop Software,The Plug Page - http://www.aris.com/ boxtop/plugpage/welcome.html
Macintosh Helper Applications -
http://home.netscape.com/assist/helperapps/mac_helpers.html

About the author. . .

Alec M. Bodzin is a recipient of an NSF Fellowship in Instructional Technologies in Science Education at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. He has previously taught secondary sciences in South Carolina, Virginia, and Kiribati. Mr. Bodzin has served on the Networking and Telecommunications Committee of the MIMS (Improving Math and Science in the Midlands) Hub from 1994-1996. He is currently involved in reform efforts to incorporate WWW resources into existing science curricula.



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