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Infusing Innovation into Mainstream Classrooms
Exploring Earth, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), infuses innovative Earth science materials and resources into mainstream classrooms. The pioneering project is a partnership between the Center for Earth and Space Science Education (CESSE) at TERC, an innovative developer of science, technology and math education materials based in Cambridge, MA, and McDougal Littell, a publisher of widely-used middle and high school textbooks. Together they are revising the popular McDougal Littell Earth Science textbook to produce a curriculum program that integrates the textbook with Web-based resources.
Exploring Earth features the power of visualizations and interactive investigations to help students learn core concepts in Earth and space science and carry out inquiry-based investigations. These visualizations and investigations are integrated with the textbook. As students read the textbook, they see direct references to related visualizations and investigations available on the Web. The Internet is fully integrated into classroom learning and no longer a separate and, at times, overwhelming resource for teachers. Every Web page has been designed with novice users in mind.
Images and interactive animations of Earth provide a rich and visual perspective to help students relate what they read in the textbook to what happens in the real world around them. Students can see volcanoes erupting, weather storms forming and dissipating, ocean currents flowing in global patterns, and the latest images from spacecraft exploring other worlds.
Exploring Earth attempts to solve a problem often confronted by developers of innovative, or even revolutionary, new approaches to science education-how to integrate them into standard classroom practice. Through this partnership between TERC and McDougal Littell, the new resources are directly infused into the more traditional textbook program, combining comprehensive content with dynamic learning opportunities. This synergy of expertise and resources illustrates the power of partnerships to promote science education reform.
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