USING WWW.DLESE.ORG TO STIMULATE DATA-RICH LEARNING EXPERIENCES

We will explore the value of using the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) website (www.dlese.org) as a primary tool for developing rich, project-based learning experiences in the Earth Science classroom. DLESE is essentially a search engine that sorts peer-submitted and peer-reviewed Internet sites containing high quality scientific and pedagogically sound Earth information, imagery and tools. It can be difficult and challenging to develop and implement lessons that emulate real scientific endeavors that put students in the role of scientific investigators using real data sets to explore their home planet. However, these types of lessons provide opportunities for rich, multi-disciplinary, collaborative investigations that access and stimulate higher order critical thinking skills and spark life-long learning. DLESE can decrease the time, energy, and frustration required to find and/or develop practical lessons that present and hone skills for students through its efficient, thorough, and user community-based search engine. For example, an initial search of the DLESE library for data-rich, Earth Science case study projects for high school level (no topic was specified), took only a few minutes and returned approximately 250 very high quality resources. The third resource in the list consisted of 18 sample modules covering a wide variety of topics that could be used as models for designing a lesson. By comparison, the same search on Google yielded 119,000 resources, whileYahoo yielded 95,700. Neither came up with more than a few resources of value to teachers within the first 20 listings. Furthermore, these listings required considerably more time to view, eliminate, and evaluate. The efficiency of searching and the high quality of the DLESE resources for the classroom will be illustrated in the detailed case studies presented in this poster.