EARTH SCIENCE EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY; A VIEW FROM A STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

Earth Science education is a particular challenge in Florida, a state situated on a carbonate platform that exhibits minimal topographic relief. Explore Florida is a web-based curriculum that grew out of the original SE MAPS project. The units were designed to allow students to visualize earth-system processes using maps and relate them to mathematics, history, social science and language arts. The materials will be directly available from the web or may be downloaded and printed in black and white or color.

The Woodville Karst Plain is the geologic setting that introduces karst hydrogeology. The area is characterized by sinking streams, natural bridges, sinkholes, an extensive flooded cave system, and major springs. These features have significant ties to prehistory, the present environment and current water-use and political issues. In the last year cave divers established a direct link between Wakulla Springs and Leon Sinks, a cluster of sinkholes approximately 8 kilometers (5 miles) to the northwest. The Spring Creek Springs Group located along the Gulf Coast ceased to flow for a short period of time, probably due to extreme drought conditions. This combination of new information and geologic change has made our unit “out of date” which is very energizing from a geologist's perspective.

As earth science and our understanding of it change, the challenge is to communicate not just information, but also excitement. The explorations by cave divers began informally in the 1950's. Explorations that would ultimately link sinks to springs began in the mid 1980's. The environmental and scientific implications of the Woodville Karst Plain continue to unfold. Effective and imaginative use of web-based technology and its inherent flexibility can bring that information both to middle and high school students as well as the broader community.