GEMS: Greater Explorations in Math and Science
Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
GLATSA: Greater Los Angeles Teachers Science Association
Global Rivers Environmental Education Network (GREEN)
GLOBE Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment
GALAXY Classroom is the United State's first interactive satellite education network dedicated to improving elementary education. Created from a philanthropic commitment of Hughes Electronics, the project began as a partnership of 40 demonstration schools. GALAXY Classroom curricula are designed to increase academic achievement, incorporate subject content through technology, extend the learning environment beyond the classroom walls, and increase self-esteem among young students. The project's vision is to successfully integrate technology, including television, with elementary curricula in science and English language arts. Its mission is to help children at an early age build cognitive, creative and literacy skills to become enthusiastic, lifetime learners and productive workers, and to help our nation's elementary schools move towards the information highway.
GEMS: Greater Explorations in Math and Science
Greater Explorations in Math and Science or GEMS was developed at the University of California Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science. Classroom testing for GEMS began in 1984. Based on a constructivist approach, GEMS serves as an excellent resource for activity-based science and mathematics for grades K-10. 60 GEMS Teacher's Guides and Handbooks are currently available and enable teachers who do not possess a specialized background in science or math to present hands-on, minds-on experiences. Research, practical testing, and a variety of assessment techniques have confirmed GEMS educational effectiveness.
Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
GIS is computer software that allows students to analyze current data such as rainfall in certain geographic locations. Students may then graph the results and compare and/or analyze the data for trends or patterns. The technology allows students to understand science as a system that is interrelated. ArchView and GIS are "tools which allow students to unlimited visualization, data analysis, and interpretation." (CIPE Update, 1997, pg. 1)
For more information on ArchView and GIS software see the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.
For examples of geographic information for data analysis and sample projects using GIS see the IDRISI Project, based at Clark University in Worcester, MA.
GLATSA: Greater Los Angeles Teachers Science Association
This association was started in 1975 by Alex Bailian, and was initially an organization that provided staff development for Los Angeles Unified School District science teachers. It initially had only 15 teacher members, and now membership is approximately 300. The Inertial Tree newsletter was its first product and now it provides a yearly science conference for teachers from the region.
Global Rivers Environmental Education Network (GREEN)
A program created in 1984 with the help of William B. Stapp, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Education, from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and the Environment. The network's beginnings took shape as participants from several schools and communities shared water quality data and collectively considered what actions they could take to resolve watershed issues (Cole-Misch, 1996).
The network is "an interdisciplinary, action-oriented approach to improve education through an international network of people and institutions promoting watershed stewardship and sustainability" (Cole-Misch, 1996, 1).
GLOBE - Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment
GLOBE is a collaborative program in which tens of thousands of students, teachers, scientists, and others around the world, work together to collect environmental data at local sites, and then share the information with others via the Internet. Over 40 countries are involved, several in remote locations. Guided by their teacher (who must attend a 4-day training workshop), students take environmental measurements such as average daily temperature, minimum/maximum temperature, precipitation, cloud cover, cloud type, and land cover. Measurements are then sent via the Internet to a processing center. Students' data are combined with data from other science sources enabling environmental scientists to better understand the Earth. Students can see how their activities have real scientific significance because state-of-the-art digital images of the day's data are relayed back to the classroom by television, computer, or other communications system.
To participate in the program, teachers must attend the workshop and schools must purchase the scientific measurement equipment meeting GLOBE specifications. Instrument costs are about $300 for elementary schools, $450 for intermediate schools, and $500 for high schools. For a registration form and brochure contact The GLOBE Program, 744 Jackson Place, NW, Washington, D.C. 20503, phone 202-395-7600, fax 202-395-7611, or e-mail GLOBE.
"A form of discovery teaching in which the teacher takes an active part in organizing instructional activity so that students can be led to make 'discoveries' on their own" (De Boer, p. 210). (See also Discovery Learning)