Introduction to Learning Activities

Welcome to the Puna Ridge expedition interactive learning corner!

We've got full Lessons on subjects related to the expedition online, short Science Factoids, and during our expedition, our Teachers-on-Board  will be posting mini-lessons on topics they become interested in during their stay with us.

• Our Lessons cover the scientific method as we apply it to the Puna Ridge and mapping of the data we collect during our expedition; each lesson is a teaching module with goals, information on the topic, and learning activities. These lessons were developed in conjunction with Hawaii high school teachers.

• Our Science Factoids are short mini-lessons covering a number of subjects related to the science, ship operation and navigation, and instrumentation that we'll be using. Each topics is presented concisely, and followed by a multiple-choice question at the end to see if you understood what we tried to convey. The factoids are meant to be starting points for more in-depth inquiry for those who want to know more about the subject area.

• The Teacher-on-Board  program gives three teachers an opportunity to be a part of the expedition as part of the scientific party on board. In turn, through their web postings, they have promised to convey their experiences of life on board our ship, and to continue to teach their classes through mini-lessons they create while at sea. The teachers are part of Hawaii's Department of Education Electronic School (E-school), which provides Internet-based high school classes to students in Hawaii and Chicago through a 5-year pilot project funded by a U. S. Department of Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grant.

The Puna Ridge expedition is happy to be a part of the Hawaii's E-school curriculum. In the true spirit of E-school, our site will be a dynamic, interactive, and virtual learning environment, as we will be adding components to the  web site daily through our Daily Flashes  and Teacher-on-Board postings from our research ship, the R/V Thomas Thompson. We hope that you find our web site both enjoyable and also informative, and look forward to your email with comments on what you liked and disliked about our site, and how we can further improve our science information delivery.

Teaching Modules

We have developed several educational modules to aid in understanding our project. Each module includes goals, background information, and activities to test comprehension. The lesson plans and activities were developed in coordination with Hawaii State Department of Education (DOE) high school teachers, and will be used this Fall, 1998, in two distance-learning, Internet-based courses that are part of the DOE's Electronic School, SE20 Earth Science, and SA45 Seminar in Scientific Research: Year of the Ocean.