Smithsonian hosts electronic field trips
It’s the latest high-tech gimmick in the world of science education: a chance for students around the world not just to visit new places and learn new things via satellite and the internet, but to do so in real time. And beginning Tuesday, Belize’s mangrove and sea turtles will be the stars of the latest broadcast.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
This week, the Smithsonian Institution is estimating that more than fifteen million children from across the United States, the Caribbean and Central America will go on electronic field trips…to Belize.
Anson Hines, Smithsonian Environmental Research Centre
“This is a very innovative and challenging approach to teaching schoolchildren.”
According to Anson Hines, assistant director of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Centre, with the help of highly sophisticated technology like satellites and high speed internet access, the broadcast: “Where Land and Sea Intertwine” will facilitate a meeting of the mind where science students and marine biologists will explore the worlds of mangroves and sea turtles in Belize.
Anson Hines
“They can call in through telephone feeds and through Palm Pilot kinds of connections to talk to the scientists in the field and see the animals and plants and the environmental conditions that scientists are working with.”
The first session on mangroves will be conducted from Calabash Caye on the Turneffe Atoll, while on Thursday, the students will electronically travel to Gales Point Manatee to learn about the life cycle and migration patterns of sea turtles.
Anson Hines
“It’s risky, it’s exciting because it is risky, but on the other hand this is a new technology that’s being applied.”
From a technical standpoint, the project will cost more than fifty thousand U.S. dollars and as with any live feed, anything can go wrong, and usually does. But the Smithsonian scientists are convinced that no matter what happens in the field, their dedication and enthusiasm will stimulate the interest of the students.
Anson Hines
“Countries like Belize are an extension of their sustainable earth and it’s a wonderful resource for all the citizens of the world to understand and know better and to experience not just what happens in their own backyards, but if we can engage their interest, then we hope that not only will that become better citizens, more informed citizens to make better political and economic decisions about their own government and their own lifestyle, but also we hope to become the next generation of environmental scientist and managers.”
So then the one disappointing element of this bold initiative is that outside a lucky few Belizeans who will physically go on the trips, local students won’t get to interact online with scientists. But according to Eden Garcia, Director of the Institute of Marine Studies at the University of Belize, our students get other benefits from these kinds of projects.
Eden Garcia, Dir., Institute of Marine Studies, U.B.
“Students tend to participate in their programs, or teachers tend to participate, they get a lot of the information, the knowledge that these people tend to bring in the country. Unfortunately, when it deals with sophisticated technology like satellite transmission, broadcasting of these programmes through the Internet, we’re still a little bit behind. But in most cases, certain equipments are then brought in and donated to the University, so that the field station has access to some equipment so that we can provide better educational programmes for Belizeans.”
The ninety-minute field trips will be available to those with high-speed Internet access on Tuesday and Thursday morning from eight to nine-thirty and again from eleven to twelve-thirty. The website address is ali.apple.com/belize. The event is produced by Ball State University in Indiana with support from the Best Buy Children’s Foundation and the Institute of Marine Studies of the University of Belize.
