Stephen
Prince, Department of Geography, University of Maryland, sprince@umd.edu
(Presenting)
Haihong
Yang, Department of Geography, University of Maryland, yanghh@umd.edu
(Presenting)
Earth system science has become widely accepted as a framework from which to pose interdisciplinary questions to help people understand the nature and consequences of anthropogenic perturbations in the interrelated physical, chemical, biological, and social systems on planet Earth. Educational programs, tailored within this framework, are fundamental to raise awareness of the increasingly complex environmental challenges and cultivate an informed citizenry equipped to understand the choices to be made in areas ranging from environmental protection to energy policy, from land use issues to space exploration. It is commonly recognized that some intuitive, context-based, problem-oriented learning tools are always needed to facilitate the learning process and hence to maximize the learning gain when dealing with the study of complicated subjects such as the Earth system science. The purpose of this research is to propose and implement a learner-centered collaborative learning framework for Earth system science with the support of information technology, especially Web-based GIS platforms. A preliminary learning tool will be presented by taking the simulation of impact of land use change on storm water runoff as an exemplar study case.
NASA Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Active Awards Represented by this Poster: