WEB-BASED RESOURCES TO SUPPORT TEACHING AND LEARNING ABOUT THE GREATER YELLOWSTONE ECOSYSTEM

Web-based resources have revolutionized the way educators teach courses by providing access to dynamic learning media. Although these resources are now invaluable classroom tools, the current challenge is to organize select resources into coherent, practical teaching collections that link scientific content with effective pedagogy. To address the problem of resource organization and usability we created a thematic collection based on numerous spatial and temporal subjects that focus on the Yellowstone ecosystem. The goals of this collection are to find and organize exceptional digital resources relevant to the Yellowstone ecosystem, thereby providing a useful teaching tool and an example for future theme-based collections using an Earth system science approach. The collection was created by first determining a set of key Yellowstone topics and concepts such as physiography, surficial geology, volcanology, geothermal features, geodesy and geophysics (e.g. seismic events), biogeology (e.g. life in extreme environments), and contemporary issues such as fire and wildlife management. By systematically searching the web for these specific topics, instead of a more general ?Yellowstone? search, we located more technical sites and obtained a more diverse information base. Accurate, relevant sites were cataloged directly into the Carleton College Science Education Resource Center (SERC) content management system. Once resources were compiled into this database, they were further organized and arranged into the greater Yellowstone ecosystem collection, a new module in SERC (http://serc.carleton.edu). To accommodate multiple teaching styles and pedagogies, these resources were arranged by: (1) browsable subjects, (2) integrated earth system science themes, and (3) inquiry-based topics that address compelling contemporary research questions. This collection provides an important step towards integrating primary scientific research with effective classroom applications.