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Technology that Enhances Naturalist Intelligence
by Dee Dickinson



A symposium was held recently in Japan on the effects of multimedia technology on human development. During the first day, presentations were given on learning through new technologies, edutainment, designing and utilizing new kinds of learning spaces to accommodate technology, using the Internet, virtual reality projects, science education in the Internet Age, growing up in a multimedia environment, and the future of "cyber-child" research. At the end of the day, a Japanese lady in the audience asked to speak. She said, "Last week we had a big snow in Tokyo It was very beautiful, and I remembered as a child being so excited about playing in the snow, feeling snowflakes on my face, making snow people, and tossing snow balls. I looked out of my window, and there were no footprints in the snow."

As electronic technologies become increasingly available and part of our lives, it is essential to recognize that they do not replace human interaction and experience in the natural world. They are, however, excellent tools that facilitate scientific investigation, exploration, and other naturalist activities. Telecommunications technologies help students to understand the world beyond their own environments, and help them to see how their actions can actually affect their world. As you will see in the examples that follow, these tools make it possible for students to understand real experiences in greater detail and depth.

The "Wireless Coyote," a joint project of Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow and the Orange Grove Middle School in Tucson, Arizona involved middle school students in using electronic technology to learn more about the ecology of Sabina Canyon in Tucson. Twenty-one sixth grade students used a variety of scientific instruments to measure soil and water temperature, wind speed, and soil composition. They also used mobile computers connected to a wireless local area network and walkie-talkies to collaborate with each other and communicate the data they collected.

The students, teachers, and technicians were divided into three groups to gather data in different locations. They communicated the data to another base- camp group that provided equipment, coordinated the activities, and transmitted the findings to yet another group in the school fifteen miles away where students built a database of the results. A naturalist worked with this group to increase their understanding and offer further information, which they communicated, back to students in the field.

Often it is not possible for students to actually explore some sites such as the depths of the Mediterranean Ocean, the cones of active volcanoes, the Galapagos Islands, or Iceland. Through the JASON Project, students all over the United States can actually interact with explorers at such sites. Founded by Dr. Robert Ballard, who discovered the wreckage of the Titanic and who remains an active participant in the project, the project brings real excitement to science classes. Using technology, students participate in an annual scientific expedition over a two-week period tied to a yearlong curriculum. Each year, about 30 students and 6 teachers are chosen by application to accompany the JASON scientists at the expedition site and serve as peer role models during the live broadcasts and online. At the primary interactive sites, (PINS) students can access a network of museums, educational institutions, research organizations where students communicate via satellite links with scientists, operate robots and scientific equipment via live remote control, as well as see and participate in live, up-to-the minute coverage of expedition activities. Through the last eight expeditions, more than 2 million students at the PINS sites have been part of this program, and countless others are finding a "virtual window on the world" through a Web site using emerging Web technologies, (http://www.jasonproject.org).

Many schools are breaking down the walls of the classroom in still other ways. For example, at Clear View Charter School in Chula Vista, California, fourth and fifth grade students participate in on-line sessions with the Electron Microscope Facility at San Diego State University. Students who have been collecting, reading about, classifying and studying bugs can see their tiny subjects in great detail, ask questions, and discuss their observations with an entomologist at the university. You may see this class in action, as well as other examples of ways to activate learning through technology on the Learn and Live videotape produced by the George Lucas Educational Foundation. The accompanying book and continually added examples of schools utilizing new technologies are on their Web site at (http://glef.org).

In New Hampshire students in grades 2 through 8 participate in three unusual science projects called Batnet, Birdnet, and Treenet. The projects were devised by a group of teachers under the auspices of Project RISE, funded by the National Science Foundation Teacher Enhancement Grant. Students count bats that fly by within a certain amount of time, record their count, air temperature and estimated wind speed, then report their findings on an electronic network that links students in the southeastern part of the state. Other students make records of bird migration, and still others measure the diameter of trees in order to help determine the age of New Hampshire's forests. All of these projects combine the use of technology and real life experiences in ways that not only vitalize learning but also contribute to the adult knowledge base of the environment. The teachers have concluded that network science improves teaching and learning in the following ways:
  • It makes science topics more real.
  • It lends immediacy both to data sharing and the questions kids ask.
  • Students make valid contributions to scientific research, and their notion of research expands. Students learn that data drive the hypothesis.
  • Students learn that science really involves questions, not answers, and that there can be many answers to one question.
  • Students use technology across curriculum area, integrating many subjects.
  • This process offers many opportunities for dialogue among students and between teachers and students, as well as occasions for assessing how well students understand essential concepts.
Projects in other parts of the country also engage students in contributing important information to their communities, demonstrating the value of learning Project, involves a global study of wildlife migration. (See http://www. learner.org/jnorth). The Global Rivers Environmental Education Network involves students in assessing the water quality of rivers throughout the world, and offers software for processing data. (See http://www.igc.apc.org/green). The Globe Program is an environmental science and education project involving students and teachers in over 60 countries in learning more about our planet. (See http://www.globe.gov/ghome.invite.html.)

Among the many organizations offering exciting on-line learning adventures and explorations are:
  • the National Geographic Online at http://www.nationalgeographic.com allows students to go on expeditions with famed geographic explorers and photographers.
  • Odyssey In Egypt: the Interactive Archaeological Dig takes students in grades 6-8 to the ruins of a Coptic Monastery to work "virtually" alongside archaeologists (http://www.scriptorium.org/oddyssey)
  • "Class Afloat," a virtual cruise for students in grades 3--9, follows the adventures of a crew of students aboard the tall ship Concordia as they circumnavigate the globe (http://www.teachtsp.com)
  • Microsoft's Mungo Park, an online adventure magazine, offers chat sessions with expedition parties who also report their experiences via the Internet, relying on satellite communications systems, laptop computers, and digital cameras (http://mungopark.msn.com)
Other organizations offer boundless resources not found in any textbooks. For example, Access Excellence, developed by Genentech, describes new developments in biology for high school students and teachers and provides classroom biology projects via their Web site at http://www.gene.com/ae. (http://www.microsoft.com/kids). Ask Asia, an extensive new resource about Asia and Asian American studies designed for use by K-12 students, includes maps, current events, and links to other resources at http://www.askasia.org.

Numerous CD-ROMs are also available, such as Scholastic's "Magic School Bus" series, which takes students on electronic field trips to the Costa Rican rain forest, the ocean, the solar system, and the age of the dinosaurs. The SIM series (http://www.maxis.com) includes Sim Life, which lets you design your own ecosystem, and Sim Ant Classic, which lets you set up an ant world. I Spy and Digital Field Trip to Wetlands are other excellent examples of this kind of tool.

For teachers, New Horizons for Learning offers extensive resources on ways to apply the Naturalist intelligence on its Web site in the form a virtual Building. See the Grounds and Gardens: Environmental Education floor. (http://www.newhorizons.org)

In concluding this discussion of how electronic technologies can enhance the development of Naturalist intelligence, let us turn to the most basic of nature studies, i.e. the study of human nature and the ecology of the brain. Until recent years most of these studies were done in the surgery and by observation of brain-injured people. Now it is possible not only to see the structures of the brain with non-invasive technologies such as PET and CAT scans, but also the watch brain activity through functional MRI's. We are just beginning to understand what this information tells us about individual differences in learning.

The tools and resources previously mentioned are but a few examples of rapidly escalating ways to enliven, activate, enrich, and deepen real learning through technology. The walls of science classrooms are indeed coming down, as a whole world of learning becomes accessible to students and teachers, who can now become partners with scientists and explorers in discovering and constructing knowledge about our planet and its inhabitants.


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© 1998 New Horizons for Learning and America Tomorrow, Inc. Permission for excerpt granted to America Tomorrow, Inc.

Page created April 2, 1998