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Kids Interacting With Kids World-wide Through Web-based Visualization
Technologies: The Kids as Global Scientists Project
Nancy Butler Songer
School of Education and Institute of Cognitive Science
University of Colorado
Campus Box 249
Boulder, CO. 80309 USA
songer@stripe.colorado.edu
http://stripe.colorado.edu/~kgshtml/Home.html
The World Wide Web offers dramatic new teaching and learning opportunities for K-12 education.
With extensive funding from the National Science Foundation Application of Advanced Technologies and
Presidential Faculty Fellows programs, the Kids as Global Scientists Project (KGS) began its fourth year of
exploring the learning potential of emerging Web-affiliated tools, including professional conferencing
software, Java Applets for real-time weather imagery, and on-line classroom activities which are continuously
updated with new science information.
Over the past four years, approximately 4500 pre-college students in sixty world-distributed locations
have learned to use the Internet telecommunications network, Netscape-based curricula, and real-time
visualization software resources for learning about real-time events in environmental education. In this time
period, KGS classrooms have included sites as diverse as: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA; Galena, Alaska,
USA; Harlem, New York, USA; Adelaide, Australia; Alberta, Canada; San Juan, Puerto, Rico; Shatin, Hong
Kong; Zikhron-Yaakov, Israel; Aberdeen, Scotland; and Rovaniemi, Finland.
Student work is guided by an eight-week curriculum, called Kids as Global Scientists, developed by
Dr. Nancy Butler Songer and colleagues at the University of Colorado, Boulder, CO. USA
[http://stripe.colorado.edu/~kgshtml/Home.html]. In addition, students use their own data collection devices
and state-of-the-art visualization software, including Blue-Skies developed by Dr. Perry Samson and
colleagues at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. USA [http://groundhog.sprl.umich.edu], to collect,
share, and analyze real and near-time data. In many cases students learn to use interpret and use powerful
imagery, including infrared and visible satellite imagery, temperature and wind vector maps, weather
animations displaying a series of images, and many others. Then students use the imagery and information as
they perform web-based activities that encourage them to predict the path of a recent hurricane and use current
news reports and personal stories from individuals experiencing the storm to interpret the degree of damage or
to develop scientific explanations of the occurrence. In another example, students investigating a storm
originating in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii downloaded current weather imagery of the event and
corresponded with students nearby as a means to learn about the storm’s patterns and characteristics. As the
storm moved eastward, new students’ expertise was called into play. In this and other ways, students learn to
capitalize on the best features that web-based learning activities can provide, including real-time information
and imagery, real-time conferencing with groups of distributed individuals, and other opportunities to interact
with the information and individuals the telecommunications tools provide.
The result of the development and orchestration of projects like this is a unique and highly
motivational educational experience which allows pre-college students an opportunity to evaluate, discuss, and
analyze dynamic and currently-occurring science. Many students comment that they greatly appreciate this
opportunity to get a rich and more meaningful view of science, where personal communication is used as an
important vehicle for collaboration and learning, rather than utilizing a majority of static or impersonal
sources for information. This presentation will feature a variety of multimedia illustrations of the successes