Let me introduce myself: My name is Géraldine Fauville and I’m the
Swedish coordinator of an international educational project addressing
environmental issues: Inquiry-to-Insight (Project Investigator: David
Epel from Stanford Univeristy and Michael Thorndyke from The royal
Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Let me tell you more about our project:
As the carbon dioxide concentration in the air is increasing, the oceans
are changing: they are getting warmer (global warming) and more acidic
(ocean acidification). These threats are very likely to have substantial
impacts on marine ecosystems and on terrestrial species that depend on
the oceans (e.g. human beings). To prevent the most dramatic
consequences of such changes to the climate, citizens need to take
collective actions. Those issues are international and the only way to
find effective solutions is to promote *collaboration between
countries*. The media and internet release tremendous amount of
information of different quality and accuracy on those issues and thus
people need to have a good *critical thinking ability* in order to sort
out all the information. In that respect, schools have a critical role
to play. In that respect, education is a key factor to increase
awareness and understanding of climate change.
Inquiry-to-Insight -partnership between Stanford University, USA and
Göteborg University, Sweden - develops implements and testes
international students’ collaboration and digital tools addressing
climate change and environmental issues with high schools students
following a Biology/Nature Science class.
The students involved in I2I collaborate with students from another
country through a private social network (used as a social network and a
learning platform) Aside from social networking; I2I provides online
tools on climate change (ocean acidification, carbon footprint) and - in
the near future- on pollution. We also promote interaction between
scientists and students thanks to new technologies.
One such tool that we have developed is an open access virtual animation
and laboratory on ocean acidification
(http://i2i.stanford.edu/carbonlab/co2lab.swf). This tool allows
students to improve their background knowledge of OA and to become
virtual scientists, conducting and analyzing research on the effect of
ocean acidity on a key and well known marine organism: sea urchin. Our
results from a pilot study in two high schools in Sweden and California
indicate that the OA I2I activities in particular and other I2I tools in
general, increase students' awareness and understanding of OA.
Practically, the schools collaborating with us will have:
* the opportunity to get a better understanding of the environmental
issues which will be amongst the most challenging problems in the coming
years
* a rare opportunity to discover a world often misunderstood: Sciences.
Science will not be any longer just laws and formula to study in a book
but a way of thinking and solving problems. This rich experience may
lead some of them to embrace a scientific career.
* a chance to meet a new culture and different ideas. Moreover it is a
real challenge for teenagers to accept and respect someone else’s point
of view- even in family. This exercise of “cross-cultural” communication
will be a useful for them in their “everyday” life.
* for teachers, observing how students react to new technologies. It can
give valuable keys to improve students’ learning interests.
We are looking for English speaking classrooms eager to meet our project
and we believe some High schools from Yukon could be interested in
joining us.
If you want to know more about the project, visit our website:
http://i2i.stanford.edu/index.html or feel free to contact me for any
further information.
Best wishes,
Géraldine
--
*Géraldine Fauville*
Project coordinator WGLN III: Inquiry to Insight
Web: Inquiry-to-Insight <http://i2i.stanford.edu>
The Sven Lovén Centre for Marine Sciences - Kristineberg
S-450 34 Fiskebäckskil
Sweden
Email: geraldine.fauville@loven.gu.se
Phone: ++46 (0) 523 18543
Fax: ++46 (0) 523 18502
