Sunday, 9 January 2005
NASA's systems solutions for earth science education
The potential for transforming students from passive to active learners is nowhere greater than in the Earth science classrooms. Making it easy for students to explore data and answer their own questions opens the doors to a whole new world of learning. Engaging students with large-scale Earth system data sets allows them to address complex, real-world problems, teaches them to critically evaluate the robustness of data and other forms of evidence, and develops their abilities to use scientific methods. The challenge lies in providing ready and easy access to Earth science data sets along with scientific visualization and analysis tools. Data archiving and management solutions have traditionally been designed to serve the research community, and may be poorly suited for serving the needs of the education community. The Research, Education and Applications Solutions Network (REASoN), an integrated network of Earth science data and information providers and users begun in 2003, is one of several ongoing activities at NASA addressing this issue. REASoN activities are organized so that research, education and application community interests and requirements are shared and met through cooperative efforts. The bringing together of these communities helps to eliminate stovepipes and supports the development of value-added data and information products shared across communities. This poster will highlight REASoN and other integrated solutions for Earth system education.
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