Welcome to the

K-12 Earth Systems Science Project

of the

Network Montana Project

Earth System Science On-Line

[If you are interested in working on this project as a
writing team member, please take this link.]

Reform movements in K-12 mathematics and science education have been gathering support for over a decade. Today, the American Association for the Advancement of Science AAAS, the National Science Teachers Association NSTA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA, the National Science Foundation NSF, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and other powerful organizations have recognized the importance of telecommunications and computer technologies in education.

More and more K-12 teachers and students are surfing the Internet in search of images, information, and ideas that support and extend their educational objectives. Unfortunately, the resources they seek are often scattered across hundreds of databases, home pages, and documents. Furthermore, most teachers and students have no clear idea of how to incorporate Internet-based resources into normal classroom teaching and learning. Prototype K-12 classroom activities are needed that model the use of on-line images, information, and computational resources. Furthermore,these prototypes should model the integration of science, mathematics, and technology in contexts meaningful to K-12 students.

In response to this need, Network Montana is working with teams of teachers, scientists, and mathematicians to develop K-12 Earth Systems Science classroom activities and Internet/CD-ROM information resources focused on the components boundaries, relationships and interactions of the Earth's systems. In approaching this task, Network Montana will make extensive use of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth on-line resources.

Mission to Planet Earth is studying how our global environment is changing. Using the unique perspective available from space, NASA is observing, monitoring and assessing large-scale environmental processes, with an emphasis on climate change. MTPE satellite data, complemented by aircraft and ground data, are enabling us to better understand environmental changes, to determine how human activities have contributed to these changes and to understand the consequences of such changes. MTPE data, which NASA is distributing to researchers worldwide, are essential to humans making informed decisions about protecting their environment. - NASA