Using the Global Environmental Change Web Site

The TORCH Team
sends you greetings from the field, June 2000! This photo was taken in Big Bend National Park with a digital camera. The image was downloaded to a laptop PC connected to our satellite telephone unit. We dialed into the University of Texas at Dallas server and uploaded the .jpeg file to welcome you to our web site!

Note: The UT-Dallas Science Education team has been in the field for several weeks now. Unfortunately, our satellite phone bill was due and we were not able to upload the image directly from the field. We have done such from Big Bend before... although the cost of the call is rather expensive, it is great fun and can be done!

We'd love to know what you think about our site
and how you've used these resources in your classroom.
Please send us a note - or ask any questions - via email.

We would also greatly appreciate it if you could take a minute to submit your responses to the Constructivist Multimedia Learning Environment Survey (CMLES) Teacher Actual Form. Enter "Big Bend VFT" for the class id and describe what actually happens in your classroom as you teach lessons based on this Big Bend Virtual Field Trip. Thanks!

Virtual Field Trips

What exactly is a "virtual field trip"?
As defined by Nix, 1999 in A Critical Evaluation of Science-related Virtual Field Trips available on the World Wide Web: "a virtual field trip is an inter-related collection of images, supporting text and/or other media, delivered electronically via the World Wide Web, in a format that can be professionally presented to relate the essence of a visit to a time or place. The virtual experience becomes a unique part of the participants' life experience".

How can I use "virtual field trips" in my classroom?
There are many ways to use virtual field trips in your classroom. All trips address the introductory level science and basic process skills described in state and national standards documents, like the TEKS. Select teacher's ideas for using the Big Bend trip in their classroom are presented in Using the Big Bend Virtual Field Trip in your Classroom. Eventually, we'll link aspects of the virtual field trip to specific TEKS and standards to assist in lesson planning. In the meantime, please click on the links below to review particular items of interest:

Science TEKS
National Science Education Standards for Environmental Science
Earth System Science Online

Concept Maps and Inquiry

Click here to find out more about "Chunking" complex concepts to manage information and assess understanding. Sorry for the lousy graphics. There's a lot of ancillary detail in the diagrams. Don't worry about what each "box" actually says. This is simply an example. The point is to get the idea of how it all fits together. This is NOT the ideal presentation, but it's a start that will hopefully help you get started!

Web Site Contribution Evaluation Rubric

Inquiry supports learning by suggesting that students design and carry out activities to answer their own questions.  This teaching technique is dependent on the experience of the teacher in dealing with this type of learning and on the experience of the students with an inquiry learning environment.  Students generating their own questions and performing their own labs is not an automatic occurrence.  It is a technique that must be taught to the students and teachers alike. Find out more in Levels of Inquiry, an article by Cynthia E. Ledbetter.

Opportunities/Credits

Click here to find out more about the Global Environmental Change Project.

Click here to find out more about Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation's TORCH - Teacher Outreach programs.

Click here to find out more about Science Education at the University of Texas at Dallas.