Visit_Introduction

"Virtual Immersion in Scientific Inquiry for Teachers" (VISIT) is an Online Collaboratory for teachers of grades 9 – 12 science, mathematics, and technology subjects. VISIT teachers participate in scientific investigations of contemporary problems relevant to our own curricula and local environments.Teachers experience scientific inquiry processes we will create for our students. Teachers pursue our own professional growth with support of colleagues, scientists and technologists.

VISIT teachers and scientists learn how to take advantage of recent technological developments, scientific data bases, data analysis tools and methods, spatial reasoning, and current scientific investigations. VISIT teachers, scientists and technologists assist individual teachers in locating and applying scientific data sets relevant to their local environment and investigation topics. Our learning outcomes include the following:

Define and conduct investigations that support process and content curriculum objectives. Example current topics include pollutants in surface water; watershed assessment; environmental hazards and toxic release inventories; ecological modeling.
Work with large and multiple scientific data bases to extract meaningful information for our classes. Learn to locate, acquire, and use relevant databases in combination with student-gathered data, to support investigations appropriate for our students and local environments.
Use software tools to perform spatial data analysis and reasoning, modeling, and problem solving tasks.
Access scientific knowledge needed to interpret and understand findings in a particular investigation, from the perspective of curriculum concepts.
Manage projects in the classroom; organizing student teams based on the nature of the investigation. VISIT Core Team teachers advise participants based on our classroom experience and facilitate sharing of teachers’ knowledge.
Develop and apply rubrics to assess our own and students' work and learning.

In school year 2000 – 2001, VISIT teachers come from high schools in the Detroit, Michigan and Boston, Massachusetts metropolitan areas. VISIT plans to engage at least 1,000 teachers over the three years, in at least six metropolitan areas across the U.S.The scientific research and technology development is conducted at Eastern Michigan University (EMU) Center for Environmental Information Technology Applications (CEITA), the Rouge Watershed Project, Washtenaw County Department of Environmental and Infrastructure Services, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Geological Survey Great Lakes Science Center, and National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.

In VISIT online courses, teachers learn from pedagogical case studies and project kits, lesson plans, tutorials, and technical assistance, as well as learning from each other. Teachers work with scientists and technologists to develop our own investigations. We contribute to the materials, knowledge, and social support of this learning environment.
VISIT Teachers may choose to participate in one or more of the VISIT courses and investigation topics. Each course includes a five-week class online plus additional face-to-face activities scheduled locally.

The overall technology application is called distributed geographic information systems (DGIS). The DGIS tools being composed support data mining, scientific investigation, knowledge base, curriculum integration, instruction management, learning assessment, and online participation.
These tools are built upon the COM (component object model) architecture. Major types of software components include the following:
MapObjects a software development package from Environmental Systems Research Insitute (ESRI). MapObjects support visualization and analysis of data.
ActiveX controls. ActiveXs support scientific analysis and computation.
Knowledge-building environment using standard query language and frequently asked questions and comments by the participants.
Java beans in Active Server Pages (ASPs). ASPs facilitate online participation, user interactions, and graphic interfaces. Java beans support users as they construct the knowledge base, integrate curriculum, manage instruction and assess learning.