GLOBE and Exploratorium
According to Bielaczyc and Collins (1999): “The defining quality of a learning community is that there is a culture of learning in which everyone is involved in a collective effort of understanding. There are four characteristics that such a culture must have: (1) diversity of expertise among its members who are valued for their contributions and given support to develop, (2) a shared objective of continually advancing the collective knowledge and skills, (3) an emphasis on learning how to learn, and (4) mechanisms for sharing what is learned.”
I investigated GLOBE and Exploratorium. While I feel, for the reasons outlined below, that GLOBE very much fits the definition of a learning community, I had a different experience with Exploratorium. I found the Exploratorium site to be very interactive, informative and engaging. I explored one of the “10 Cool Sites” and enhanced my knowledge of how vision works and the brain and optical illusions. It would be very easy to use this site in class as enrichment, information and to teach specific content. However, the activities that I looked at were stand-alone. They were done individually and did not engage the user in a broader community. Although that may have been a reflection of the activities I chose and even though I think it is a valuable site, I do not think Exploratorium meets the criteria of a learning community, so I will concentrate on GLOBE.
GLOBE develops the relationship between students, teachers and members of the scientific community. All of the activities within GLOBE are developed by scientists and the teachers are specifically trained to ensure that the results the classes report meet scientific criteria (Butler & MacGregor, 2003; Means & Peneul, 2004). Within GLOBE, students have the opportunity to communicate with scientists and see how the data that they collect contributes to a broader, global picture of the environmental issue being studied. The diversity of members within the structure, the support given to the teacher and the value placed on the data that the students collect creates the right environment to meet the first criteria for a learning community as outlined by Bielaczyc and Collins (1999). Diversity of expertise is also enhanced by the active effort of GLOBE to include activities appropriate for students of all ages and cultures.
GLOBE meets the second criteria because the data the students collect is actually used in scientific research (Butler & MacGregor, 2003; Means & Peneul, 2004). Activities are only created within GLOBE if there are scientists who will use the data in actual research. Butler and MacGregor (2003) state that: “GLOBE only asks students to take observations if there is a research team prepared to use some of the resulting data.” (p. 9). Students are contributing in a very real way to advancing the collective knowledge of the scientific community. By providing the students with specific collection criteria, the students’ knowledge is also advanced because they learn specific scientific skills and procedures in a hands-on, meaningful way.
The research on GLOBE suggests that students who are involved in this community improve their scientific knowledge and abilities (Butler & MacGregor, 2003). It is a very inquiry-based approach to learning science and, while data collection activities are rigorous, teachers are free to adapt the way they incorporate the learning and content into their classrooms. This allows them to make the learning specific and meaningful for their students. GLOBE acknowledges efforts are necessary to insure that students learn how to apply the inquiry process but the way that GLOBE teaches the students and uses their research helps the students to learn how to learn and gives them a much more realistic idea of what “doing science” means (Butler & MacGregor, 2003).
Within the framework for GLOBE is a very well laid out mechanism for the students, via their teachers, to share their data and for the scientists to share their results. Although Means and Peneul (2004) report that some students find the data sharing repetitious, which results in some teachers not sharing the data, the opportunity is there and this in no way nullifies the learning that occurs from the collection. Additionally, this provides the opportunity for the teachers to explain how real science research works. According to Butler and MacGregor (2003), students have the opportunity to interact with students from other schools and with professionals from the scientific community.
GLOBE provides an excellent platform for students and teachers to engage in a learning community replete with opportunities to communicate with real scientists, learn valuable and realistic data collection methods, and to contribute meaningfully to global knowledge of our environment. In order to implement this activity in one’s classroom, training is required and available. Although the learning curve at the beginning might be time-consuming, GLOBE is one way to make science real to our students and to empower them by helping them join a community that goes far beyond the walls of the classroom.
References:
Bielaczyc, K., & Collins, A. (1999). Learning communities in classrooms: A reconceptualization of educational practice. In, C.M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional-Design Theories and Models: A New Paradigm of Instructional Theory, Vol II. Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, Mahwah: NJ.
Butler, D. M., & MacGregor, I. D. (2003). GLOBE: Science and education. Journal of Geoscience Education, 51(1), 9-20.
Means, B., & Peneul, W. R. (2004). Implementation variation and fidelity in an inquiry science program: Analysis of GLOBE data reporting patterns. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 41(3), 294-315.
Sites:
GLOBE: http://globe.gov/
EXPLORATORIUM: http://www.exploratorium.edu/