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Instructions and Help
General Info
The Oceans Connecting A Nation Project is a collaborative project, which means that your class
will be participating with and potentially collaborating with other students from all over the world.
At the very least, they will perfom the same experiments as your class, and then, like you, they will
submit their data to our site. After a little while, a lot of data builds up, which everyone can then
download and analyze.
In addition, classes are encouraged to use our Discussion Area to post letters
of introduction, submit final reports, and carry out discussions with other participating classes.
You may also submit photos of your class doing the water sampling tests
to be posted on our web site. It is our hope that in this way, students can learn about each other
and expand their horizons in addition to doing science.
This project runs every Fall and Spring, with the upcoming run set for October 15 - December 14, 2007 .
Students will conduct experiments and participate in lessons which are designed to show them how human
activities affect the quality of our soil and water.
Schedule
This project runs twice a year - once in the fall and once in the spring. A detailed schedule is available by selecting the Schedule option on the menu bar. It lists the basic steps you need to take in order to implement the project, and also gives key dates you need to be aware of. This should give you a basic idea of how the project will run.
Register
This project is offered completely free of charge. All you need to do is sign up so that we can keep track of the various schools participating. To do so, go here: Registration
Lessons
There are 5 core lessons that make up this project, and they have been designed to allow you to have some flexibility in lesson selection, thus making it easier to fit this project into your curriculum. It is not necessary to complete all of the lessons. However, it is recommended to follow the lessons in order so that your students will become comfortable with the basic concepts needed to reach a deeper understanding of the significant environmental issues covered by the unit. Please review each of the lessons carefully and use your judgment for allocating class time. The information below may assist you with the implementation of the project.
Lessons Rubric
| Lesson |
|
Earth Science |
|
Environmental Science |
|
Health |
|
Social Science |
|
Engineering |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Nitrogen Cycle |
|
X |
|
X |
|
- |
|
- |
|
- |
|
| Sources of Nitrogen |
|
X |
|
X |
|
X |
|
- |
|
- |
|
| Testing for Nitrogen |
|
X |
|
X |
|
- |
|
X |
|
- |
|
| What Can You Do? |
|
- |
|
X |
|
- |
|
X |
|
- |
|
| Design a Better Neighborhood |
|
- |
|
X |
|
- |
|
X |
|
X |
Testing Equipment
Information about the types of kits you will need, places to order them from, and other useful materials may be found here: Testing Equipment
Curriculum Standards
National Science Education Standards, Environmental Education Standards, and MA, NJ and NY standards are available here: Curriculum Standards
Notes and Tips
Materials Available on this Site
The worksheets in each lesson are in Microsoft Word or PDF format. (The PDF format is obtained by clicking on the PDF icon next to each worksheet title.) If you need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the PDF documents, please click here. The Reference Materials section has many links related to helpful resources. It also contains links to online experts that may be contacted for answering certain types of related questions as well as contact information for the Project Leader.
Refresh / Reload
Browsing the internet requires downloading multiple files from the internet to the computer. Users often wait long periods while complete web pages slowly show up on their computer screen. To speed up browsing time, the files that are downloaded are temporarily stored in the cache (referred to as Temporary Internet Files in Internet Explorer). Often in a Computer Lab setting, the computers are not shut down each day, and the temporary files remain on the computer. So, if a student visits a real-time data site one day, the information from the site is stored in the cache. If a student revisits the same web page a following day, the browser will first look in the cache for the information before it goes to the internet for the most recent image. To prevent confusion, the students should first look for the time and date stamp on the image. If it is not the most recent image, click the “Reload” or “Refresh” button. This will insure that the latest data is displayed. (NOTE: Internet Explorer uses the term “Refresh” and Netscape Navigator and Firefox use the term “Reload”, both of which can be found next to the Back and Forward buttons in the toolbar.)
Mirror Site Information
A mirror site is a copy of this web site which is located on a different computer, acting as a back-up in case our computer server, network, or electrical power is down for any reason. The mirror site is updated once a day to reflect any changes made to the web site in the previous 24 hours. You can access the project mirror site at the web site address:
http://www.ciese2.org/curriculum/oceansproj/
Write down the mirror site address in a place where you will have quick and easy access to it if need be. If possible, print out this page to keep for future reference.
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