Project 1: Science World
Science World will be a combined effort of the Stellar Schools initiative of STEM-Net and Cable Atlantic along with other participating schools. It will bring together all science project ideas from all over Newfoundland to provide the basis for students to plan and develop a potential science project. Science World will allow secondary schools to keep record of some of the better science projects completed in a school year. The projects will be subdivided into curricular areas such as Life Science, Physical Science, etc., in both junior and senior divisions. The best project from each curricular area, in each division, will be placed in a database. Selected students will provide a brief description of the project, the procedure used, materials used, the result and/or comments, problems encountered and/or suggestions on how the project can be improved. The student project will be entered into a database in its appropriate curriculum area. In addition, a school can develop a database online as part of their school's home page. Science World will provide an opportunity for students to seek ideas for new projects and/or enhancing present projects. This Database will grow each year with the addition of new projects. However, not all school projects within a school will be placed in the database. Many schools today request students to complete at least one main science project and/or hold a local science fair competition. The database will provide a resource for students actively involved in such an event. Science projects are an important part of the science curriculum. They are essential in developing scientific thought and critical thinking skills. They allow the student to be creative and imaginative in developing an idea. This data base does not have to be restricted to science. It can be extended to design technology (collection of student computer design projects), entrepreneurship (collection of student business ideas), literature (collection of student poems/essays) and other curricula areas within a school. Each area can be set up with a similar database which can be shared with other schools. The Stellar Schools Internet connection will enable/enhance this project by providing students the opportunity to access other information resources, such as web sites, other schools, etc., to help them obtain information or material for specific topics and/or ideas for potential science projects. The opportunity to use the Internet will allow a student to be connected with other databases, topic specific web sites, CD-ROM material, libraries and/or other schools from all over the world. As a result, the student is not confined only to the information available in their community or school libraries/resources. Learning outcomes of this project are:
students are able to retrieve needed information. students are able to upload/download information properly from the Internet. students can store required information properly. students can use the database effectively.
|
