I had the opportunity in late April to take part in a workshop for 22 educators, led by Bob Panoff, Director of NSDL’s Computational Science Education Reference Desk (CSERD) portal and Pathway project, developed by Shodor Education Foundation, Inc. Graciously hosted by Burroughs Wellcome Fund at their beautiful and beautifully situated offices in Research Triangle Park, Durham, North Carolina, the workshop was an especially effective demonstration to educators of the value of the resources, tools, and services discoverable via the National Science Digital Library and its partner portals and projects. Many of the workshop participants are recipients of grants from Burroughs’ Student Science Enrichment Program, which supports a variety of other-than-school programs focusing on inquiry-based, participatory science activities and exploration for middle and high school students.

A most engaging and entertaining teacher himself, Bob is very effective at gathering his listeners into an enthusiastic and sequenced exploration of the capabilities of web-based tools, engaging users in the power of computational science, and utilizing the interactivity of web-based tools to hook interest and explore problem-solving. Bob amply demonstrates this by use of Shodor’s Interactivate!—a collection of 137 interactive activities ranging from number and operations to geometry, algebra, probability, statistics, modeling, and more. Interactivate activities use pattern recognition, representations, and repetition to reinforce how the changing of variables changes effects, and how multiple interactions increase complexity, by leading students through one variable change at a time. Bob emphasizes the importance of teaching both students and educators how to evaluate the quality of resources found on the Web—that they have a responsibility to question and evaluate, both the resource, and the source of the resource.

Using and familiarizing workshop participants with the breadth of resources available via the National Science Digital Library, Bob inspired those present to be advocates to their own colleagues for these potent tools. I gave an overview of NSDL, featuring the newly released NSDL Concept Map Tool, the downloadable NSDL Toolbar, which allows browser-access to NSDL search and links to NSDL Pathways, and NSDL K-12 audience pages and outreach materials. Sarah Giersch of NSDL and the Digital Libraries Go To School project demonstrated the NSDL-funded Instructional Architect (IA), a free and easy-to-use tool enabling teachers to find, use, and share web-based learning resources, supporting lesson planning.

A happy synergy resulted on Day 2 when Dwight Krehbiel, a BEN Scholar (and quick learner!) gave a presentation on the BioSciEdNet (BEN) and its resources, and, having learned about the capabilities of Instructional Architect on the preceding day, took the opportunity to use IA as a way to aggregate several BEN resources to feature for workshop participants. Lang Moore of the Math Gateway provided an overview of Math Gateway, MathDL, and helpful resources such as MathTools, an interactive resource of the MathForum collection. Illustrating the one library, many portals aspect of NSDL, Bob pointed out the effective browsing capabilities and services available via the Engineering Pathway, ChemEd Digital Library Pathway, and ComPADRE Physics and Astronomy Pathway, as well as the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) project. Familiarizing workshop participants with the many aspects of the NSDL, Bob is expanding usage and converting educators to the effectiveness of digital library technology in both in-classroom and out-of-classroom activities. Participants came away with lively enthusiasm and plans for making use of the NSDL in their programs and classrooms, and are thinking of ways to do follow-up workshops.

Eileen McIlvain

Pathways Project Coordinator

National Science Digital Library