Project Overview
The Take a Dip Project is an Internet-based multidisciplinary
project sponsored by the
Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education
(CIESE) at Stevens Institute of
Technology. In particular, this project will enrich a student's learning experience through
"Unique and Compelling" applications of instructional technology.
In particular, this project taps into some of the exciting applications
of the Internet in education by having students collaborate in large
numbers across great distances to compare water quality data and
organisms found at the water sampling site.
By participating in this project, students also have the opportunity
to interact with experts online, use an online asynchronous discussion
board to to discuss project-related topics, and publish their own
work to this project web site.
This project has Five (5) Core Activities that
will teach students how to apply the knowledge and thinking skills
of science and technology to explain Real-World Phenomena.
Specifically, students will:
- Assess the quality of water based on physical
characteristics and chemical substances.
- Identify and compare organisms in a water sample with
other participating classes and assess the quality of water
based on macroscopic life found in the water.
- Look for relationships, trends, similarities, and
differences among the data collected by all project
participants.
- Draw conclusions based on raw data from the Internet.
- Have the opportunity to interact with other students from
around the world and study their geographic location,
environment, and culture.
Each of the five core activities are designed to be used in a
45 minute class period, although this may depend on the grade level
of your students. Additionally, two separate visits to the fresh
water sampling body are suggested, one prior to beginning this
project and one to complete Activity
3: Complete the Water Sampling Tests. These visits can be
conducted as a field trip with the entire class or you can bring
back photos and water samples for classroom analysis. It
is also recommended that students go through the lessons in order, beginning
with the Activity 1: Develop a
Hypothesis before continuing on to the other lessons.
The Teacher Guide section contains
detailed lesson plans for the core lessons as well as supplemental
and enrichment lessons, curriculum standards,
implementation strategies,
as well as other useful information. It is also recommended that
you review each of the lessons carefully and use your judgment for
allocating the appropriate amount of class time for the project. Additionally, you may need to download the free
Adobe Acrobat
Reader if you have not done so already to access some pages that
are stored in .pdf format.
Special note to GLOBE schools and other participants:
We welcome all participants in this project, including GLOBE
schools! However, the purpose of this project is slightly
different than the purpose of the GLOBE Project. This project is
not an ongoing monitoring project like the GLOBE Project. This
project is structured to run twice a year, for a limited period
of time. Most participants in this project only conduct water
sampling for a short period of time, and we hope that this
project offers them the opportunity to share their data in a
meaningful way.
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