ONLINE TOOLS THAT SUPPORT STUDENT INVESTIGATIONS USING EARTH DATA IN A GENERAL EDUCATION OCEANOGRAPHY CLASS

UCSB's oceanography class is taken by 100-150 students per quarter. Its focus is on an understanding of the process of science and its application to issues facing the global society. Course themes are 1)the ocean basins, 2)atmosphere/ocean/climate, 3)world fisheries. At the beginning of the course students join a group of 2-3 others to represent the viewpoint of a particular country as it relates to the current course theme. Primary activities are written science papers focusing on geological hazards (using plate tectonics) and atmosphere/climate issues that affect their country. Students face significant challenges in completing these assignments. Most cannot argue from evidence, do not know how to separate observations from interpretations, do not know how to present data, and are unskilled in science writing.

To prepare students for the writing assignments, they engage in activities designed to help them a)master background information, b)gain skills with the data exploration tools, and c)learn how to prepare and present science arguments. The EarthEd Online software system has been developed to manage and support these goals. It is integrated with data browsers that allow students access data relevant to plate tectonics (Our Dynamic Planet) and the World Ocean Atlas-98 data (Global Ocean Data Viewer). Other web based data are linked in online mini-studies that guide students through basic data explorations of topics that have global or regional effects (e.g. el-nino). A simulation of fishing based on the Fishbanks game is used during the World Fisheries theme.

The EarthEd Online software also allows auto-graded assignments, graphics linking and editing, and online writing.

Student feedback has been good, except for dissatisfaction with software bugs. They rate the writing assignments as the class activity that most effectively supports their learning.

EarthEd Online is being developed as an open source project (see http://oceanography.geol.ucsb.edu)