PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The use of data probes and sensors is a highly promising area of development for science education and innovative applications of information and communication technologies for interactive learning environments. This first-year Media X Network project—through a well-planned workshop that engages leaders in learning technologies and science educational applications of sensors and probes, and across research, industry and education sectors including Stanford and Omron—aims to:

• brainstorm and document a broad set of educational scenarios for which sensor networks would be powerful in enhancing learning content and promoting science educational engagement (in middle school, high school and college);

• couple these with specific subject matter disciplines in the curriculum where these scenarios would be fruitful if established in practice and made to fit with or augment the learning opportunities defined in the national K-12 science learning standards that define "what students should be able to know and do" (see NRC, 1996);

• identify best practices in the uses of sensors and probes in science and environmental education, including research groups, industry, and key references, which will be documented in a project website;

• consider possible testbeds in schools, museums, and universities where we could in subsequent years pilot sensor network educational prototypes and scenarios developed through collaborative work with those involved with the workshop (and other experts to be identified); and

• establish tentative priorities concerning which of the scenarios might be productively pursued in "deep dives" toward prototype development and affiliated field studies that would test them out with learners in "testbed environments" (in subsequent years of the project).