Sturgeon in the Wolf River, glacial lakes in Yellowstone National Park and Iceland, the glacial formation of Lake Winnebago, the life cycle of the lake fly--all are topics for local elementary- and middle-school science students taking part in a worldwide learning effort facilitated in part by Lawrence University scientists.
With the help of a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Lawrence is serving as the coordinating "hub" for area schools participating in the JASON Project, an international, interactive educational program that enables students in area schools to join in discussions with scientists around the world. Founded in 1989 by oceanographer Bob Ballard, JASON selects a "mission" each year, then combines interdisciplinary approaches with the latest in interactive telecommunications to link students around the world in "real time" with scientists actually engaged in field research.
This year's topic, "Journey from the center of the Earth," features geological, biological, and glaciological research at Yellowstone and in Iceland. However, says Bart De Stasio, '82, assistant professor of biology and coordinator of the Lawrence-based JASON efforts, "the most important research location is literally right in students' backyards. Through the JASON curriculum, students are encouraged to perform a wide range of local field investigations using the same methods employed by the scientists at the distant expedition sites and to share their findings with the scientists and other students through a World Wide Web site and satellite telepresence."
In May, some 800 of the approximately 2,500 students from northeast Wisconsin taking part in JASON came to Lawrence for the live satellite videoconference portion of the project.
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