A ROLE FOR DIGITAL LIBRARIES IN FACILITATING K-16 RESEARCH

Both the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) and the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) are envisioned as providing student friendly data access for the purpose of enabling students to learn through discovery. Last April, NSDL Core Integration sponsored a workshop for undergraduate faculty and resource developers to consider 1) how they currently involve students in exploring data, 2) how they would like to engage students with data in the future, and 3) the ramifications for these learning scenarios on the development of data access and manipulation tools. Workshop participants recognized two end-member models for involving students in research within courses and beyond. In the first model, students collect their own data. In the second model, students use existing large data-sets to answer new scientific questions. A continuum of activities combining features from these end-members is possible. Digital libraries could enable student research of all types by providing services that help students find and access relevant data, enable manipulation of data from one or more data sets, and allow students to generate visualizations and representations that communicate their interpretations and conclusions. Support specific to student collection of data could include the ability to view personal data in the context of larger data sets, and where appropriate to contribute data to community data-sets. In all cases, information needs to be provided to enable student evaluation of the quality of the data. The workshop participants recommended that NSDL promote the interactions and partnerships needed to develop this type of data access and supporting services. Further information about the workshop and the use of data in classrooms can be found at serc.carleton.edu/research_education/usingdata. Information about activities of the DLESE Data Access Working Group can be found at serc.carleton.edu/research_education/usingdata.html.