The project creates a prototype set of processes and products for an international team of curriculum developers to work collaboratively with research scientists in the International Geosphere Biosphere Project (IGBP) of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). This is a high priority area for research in teaching and learning, science the large investment being made by the NSF, other U.S. organizations, and other countries in IGBP research provides an unprecedented opportunity to inform science education. The project is urgent with regard to availability of data because of a special opportunity created by the ICSU. The ICSU has initiated a science education project that will translate research findings of IGBP scientists and disseminate them for use in the education systems of the world. Developers from the U.S. and U.K. will draft the first prototype instructional modules in a workshop in 1990, as part of a two-year formative development process. The project takes advantage of this opportunity to build knowledge and experience that will establish infrastructure for such collaborations among the scientific and educational communities. The project will not only create and test prototype learning materials, but also document key factors involved in the process, such as roles of scientists in the project, incentives and mechanisms for their involvement, opportunities and obstacles to scientist-educator collaboration internationally, multi-country testing and adaptation of learning materials, mechanisms for teacher and student involvement in scientific research processes.
