Earth science visuals at teachers' fingertips
Mar 2, 2011 - by Staff
11 March 2011 • A platform that helps middle and high school science teachers access and use multimedia resources will be tested in three western states later this year after successful trials in Denver. The NSF-funded Curriculum Customization Service (CCS) helps teachers incorporate digital images and animations into their instructional plans and share them with colleagues.
Middle and high school teachers identified critical needs as part of the design process for the Curriculum Customization Service. [Photo by Lynne Davis, UCAR]
Especially in large urban districts, it can be challenging for teachers to find a range of high-quality, interactive digital resources to meet the varying needs of diverse student bodies. Through CCS, teachers can identify materials of interest and keep them in a personal workspace. The service draws on a wealth of resources from the National Science Digital Library, including the extensive software infrastructure provided by NSDL Technical Network Services, which is based at UCAR, and the Digital Library for Earth System Education, whose holdings are now curated by the NCAR Library.
CCS proved its usefulness in the 2009–10 school year in the Denver Public Schools, which serve about 75,000 students. “An unintended outcome of the project is the creation of a virtual professional learning community,” says Patty Kincaid, secondary science coordinator for the school system. “Resources from the digital libraries were tagged and shared so other district teachers could benefit from the planning and expertise from others’ efforts, input, and feedback.”
CCS was created by Digital Learning Sciences, a joint program of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Institute of Cognitive Science and UCAR. “Our vision was to create a teacher-friendly software tool that would help teachers be more effective in their curriculum planning and in classroom instruction,” says DLS executive director Tamara Sumner. The service will be further refined after a 2011–12 field study examines its impact on teacher practice and student learning in six school districts from the Denver, Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas areas. More than 300 teachers will participate.