INTRODUCTION 

PROJECT
BACKGROUND

THE
EXPERIMENT

SHARING
INFORMATION

E-MAIL
EXCHANGES

REVIEW



   
  Sharing Information
   
Once the students obtained their samples, they returned to their classroom and made wet slides to see what they would find.  In order to identify the organisms, the students used resource books as well as the Internet.  Below is a picture of one macroscopic organism that was found by several of the students.
   

STUDENT SKETCH OF A MAYFLY NYMPH

Along with the field trip photos, this sketch was scanned and then placed on the project homepage so that the other project participants could see a picture of one of the more common organisms found in the local pond in Jersey City.  

In addition, a sound file was added so participants could actually hear one of the student's voices.


If your computer does not support sound files, read the text version of the student's comments.
               
Jersey City wasn't the only participant that posted its project results on the web.  In Japan, they had cameras on their microscopes.   Click the link below to go to the Japanese school project website to view some of the photographs they shared with project participants.
    

     
  Scientific Conclusions
        
This picture shows one of the microscopic organisms that was found by the participating Japanese school.  The students from Jersey City quickly identified this creature from the Japanese pond as a cyclops. They were able to name this organism without any help  because they had previously identified it in the collected samples from their local pond.  Quite excited about applying their new found knowledge, the students soon realized that their original theory had been disproved.                  

    
"Students were never as motivated to stick with it and reconcile the results with their hypotheses until they knew that other students in Japan and elsewhere were relying on them for their findings.  I found this really satisfying, particularly considering that many of these students are performing far below grade level."  Connie Rogers

 

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