Awareness Project Outline for 2003-2004

Preliminary Meetings

• The first several classroom meetings should be between the teachers and their students. Explanations of the project, software, specific goals, and grading criteria should be given during these initial meetings. Instructions on how to chat effectively may also be included during these background meetings.

Initial Chat Discussion

• The second meeting should be a well structured and graded time period for the students to discuss their project plans with their remote partners. The teachers should enforce the graded chat discussion during this class period so that the students are more likely to stay on task. The chat can be graded on its depth of which the students were able to discuss the project and its goals. The main goal for this time period is for the students to become well aware of what their partners are doing and what they are doing in relation to their partners. (This graded chat discussion could possibly be extended over more than one project day.)

Research

• For the next several weeks the students should begin to do pre-experimentation research activities independent of the students in the other classroom. Such pre-experimentation activities involve looking up answers to relevant research questions, defining relevant vocabulary words, and creating a concept map. The students may have the option during this time to maintain a shared set of vocabulary words, research questions, or concept map in the project interface. The artifacts produced from this part of the project should also be graded according to the teachers? criteria.
• For the next several weeks the students should begin to do pre-experimentation research activities independent of the students in the other classroom. Such pre-experimentation activities involve looking up answers to relevant research questions, defining relevant vocabulary words, and creating a concept map. The students may have the option during this time to maintain a shared set of vocabulary words, research questions, or concept map in the project interface. The artifacts produced from this part of the project should also be graded according to the teachers? criteria.
• For the next several weeks the students should begin to do pre-experimentation research activities independent of the students in the other classroom. Such pre-experimentation activities involve looking up answers to relevant research questions, defining relevant vocabulary words, and creating a concept map. The students may have the option during this time to maintain a shared set of vocabulary words, research questions, or concept map in the project interface. The artifacts produced from this part of the project should also be graded according to the teachers? criteria.
• For the next several weeks the students should begin to do pre-experimentation research activities independent of the students in the other classroom. Such pre-experimentation activities involve looking up answers to relevant research questions, defining relevant vocabulary words, and creating a concept map. The students may have the option during this time to maintain a shared set of vocabulary words, research questions, or concept map in the project interface. The artifacts produced from this part of the project should also be graded according to the teachers? criteria.
• For the next several weeks the students should begin to do pre-experimentation research activities independent of the students in the other classroom. Such pre-experimentation activities involve looking up answers to relevant research questions, defining relevant vocabulary words, and creating a concept map. The students may have the option during this time to maintain a shared set of vocabulary words, research questions, or concept map in the project interface. The artifacts produced from this part of the project should also be graded according to the teachers' criteria.

Experiment

• The students should now be prepared to meet in the interface to discuss the experiment and its specific design. The students should be well aware of why their experiments are related and dependent upon one another. The students should be graded on their degree of interaction in the chat and the amount of planning and organization that has taken place in a shared document.
• After ample preparation the students should now be ready to perform the experiments independently. Each group will take several weeks to gather their data and record it in the interface under the results section.

Results and Discussion

• Once the students have completed their individual experiments they will then meet together in the interface to discuss their results and analysis. This discussion will probably take several meetings, including face-to-face interaction. At this point the- The students in each classroom will produce separate written reports that will contain the shared data as well as the two sections mentioned above. The final reports will be graded according to each teacher?s criteria.
• The students in each classroom will produce separate written reports that will contain the shared data as well as the two sections mentioned above. The final reports will be graded according to each teacher?s criteria.
• The students in each classroom will produce separate written reports that will contain the shared data as well as the two sections mentioned above. The final reports will be graded according to each teacher?s criteria.
• The students in each classroom will produce separate written reports that will contain the shared data as well as the two sections mentioned above. The final reports will be graded according to each teacher?s criteria.

Final Report

• The students will then begin to jointly summarize their findings in a shared document in the interface. If there is a need, the students may also create a revised experimental design. Both of these sections, the summary and revised experimental design, should be included in the final report.
• The students in each classroom will produce separate written reports that will contain the shared data as well as the two sections mentioned above. The final reports will be graded according to each teacher's criteria.
• A power point presentation is another task that can be assigned if the teachers feel the need to do so.