9454746 Matray The Ultimate Electronic Field Trip...from abyss to Andromeda supports the creation of K-12 testbeds, whose respective teams join with science researchers and business/industry communities to create, test and pilot innovative approaches to science education that will serve as a proving ground for information technology, learning and teaching, and work world interactions. Given the goal of life long learning, the philosophical premise shall be that students/clients ask their own questions, pose and solve their own problems...where students/clients and educators both function in the roles of facilitators and constructors of their learning...where volition is the moving force rather than motivation; it will be organized around the teaching/learning process utilizing technology for cognition and instructional systems designs for the teaching of science. The parameters of the project reside in the area of regional and global marine and environmental studies and astronomy. Three overarching and interactive elements guide the process to use a network linking testbed classrooms with video images and data from research institutes, museum, and aquaria to promote interactive learning through virtual field trip experience: high-speed data communications access (ATM, ISDN and Frame Relay) and computer technologies are made available to K-14, IHEs, scientific research communities, and libraries by business and industry partners. Given access, educators, scientists, engineers, and technicians will work collaboratively to sort and identify relevant electronic data sources based on real world applications and work world interactions. This information, both asynchronous and real time, becomes available via a Regional Environmental Electronic Library (REEL) to the student/client groups involved in the testbed sites and field trip development. Access to the ultimate field trip utilizing such an infrastructure will result in: improved quality and eff ectiveness of instruction and learning in the areas of regional/global marine and environmental studies and astronomy; the use of data communications to increase access to informational, instructional and technological resources (voice, video and data); models for integrating the most cost-effective telecommunications networking into the school science curriculum; a migration model to allow schools and/or agencies to move from one science tier to the next as their needs and applications change; improvement of learning resources management; definitions of the role of voice, video and data communications in teacher training; a model for product and service dissemination, collaboration between diverse agencies, and military base closure reuse blending with education.
