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Project Design
The overall
approach of the USCT project will target students, teachers and
volunteers from six
schools within the Red River of the North Watershed. The project
design creates an inclusive
approach in connecting non-native schools adjacent or near the main
stem of the Red River of
the North to the native schools situated on the east, west and
southern perimeters of the
watershed. This approach serves as the first application of a newly
formed, basin-wide
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) among institutions of higher
education. The MOU was
created by the Red River Basin Institute to establish a formal
infrastructure to foster partnerships
and networks that focus on basin-wide approaches to scientific
research and education within the
Red River of the North Watershed.
Watershed science becomes the integrated context for learning
comprehensive
information technology training constructed around issues of the Red
River. Each school will
form a River Watch volunteer monitoring team that will become a year
round project for each of
these six schools. If River Watch is to proceed on a basin-wide
scale, we must match each
school to local science and community volunteer resources that will
support year round
monitoring activities and raise the bar regarding science and
technology skill level
development for teachers and students participating in this program
according to Wayne
Goeken, Northwest Minnesota River Watch Coordinator.
Initial project and school year instruction methods will center on a
team-based approach.
Each school team, consisting of three students, two teachers, and
one community volunteer, will
receive 125 hours of training annually. The training will include a
50-hour primary IT science
course held on North Dakota State University (NDSU) campus, 48 hours
of on-site instruction
throughout the school year. The on-site instruction includes 16
hours per school face-to-face and
32 hours distance education through classroom video-conferencing and
Prairie Public
Broadcasting Classroom TV with an additional 27 hours of web-based
instruction through
NDSU Blackboard on-line course system.
Extended activities designed at each of the six sites during
after-school and summer will
provide 300 hours of opportunities for individual participants to
practice and further develop
what they have learned during comprehensive training activities. The
use of teacher and student
stipends will support increased engagement for one teacher in a
coaching, mentoring and
advising role with the student in activities beyond the school day.
During the summer months,
one teacher and two students will receive stipends to provide
continuation of scientific work and
coordination of the weeklong day camp program. These opportunities
will support concepts of
moving beyond teacher and student to practicing scientists and
educators.
The weeklong summer day camp experience for junior scientists
(middle level students)
at each of the six sites will be coordinated by each student and
teacher team. The summer day
camp will allow for the hands-on practice of information technology
and watershed science
activities. Targeting the middle level students, this event will
support educational strategies that
move across the grade span of each individual school and foster the
building of science and
technology competencies necessary for high school level application.
The proposed design
supports opportunities for teachers to put into practice what they
are learning and supports
opportunities for students to create meaning to their learning and
experience skills needed in the
21st century workplace.
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