In consulting the publication Earth System Science: A Closer View, and in personal inter views with scientists involved in the U.S. Global Change Research Program, we came to under stand that Earth system science serves as a model for interdisciplinary process study and communication, organized to deal with the grand challenges of Global Change. We also learned that the process of investigation is iteratively designed and implemented. The tools used by scientists in investigation include: networked scientific computing facilities; distributed, remotely-sensed data; visualization and modeling tools; a standardized, widely-distributed publication environment; and a community of critically thinking peers. The ESS model of interdisciplinary study and communication enables a broadening of academic perspective in the science community-at-large, and requires a higher degree of professional-social dialogue and information exchange than previously needed. ESS, by design, intensifies the significance of scientific community-building.
Scientific community-building began in western culture in Europe in the 17th century. The apex of the scientific revolution is marked by the emergence of two great national scientific societies and their publication of professional scientific journals. The Royal Society of London for the Promotion of Natural Knowledge (1662) published Philosophical Transactions and the AcadŽmie des Sciences of Paris (1666) published MŽmoires. (Hall, 1981) The scientific societies and their journals provided individual scientists with a forum for discussing and critisizing old theories and new discoveries, sharing ideas and cooperative work. By cultivating dialogue and providing quality control, scientific societies catalyzed the advancement of science by disseminating proven innovations of individuals. (Hall, 1981) Scientific societies facilitated learning through communication.
In the three-hundred and fifty years since the scientific revolution the idea of a scientific community has been well articulated and is considered commonplace today, at least in post-graduate research and development. (Kuhn, 1977) Students and teachers in science education have somehow resisted this enabling sociological model.
Now the voices of American culture calling for systemic change in science education (in K-undergradute education) have focused their discussion on multidisciplinary studies, professional development, development of standards, and the role of technology - the same issues addressed in the establishment of scientific societies in the 17th century. At the same time, the post-graduate science community is undergoing an evolution following a new view of the Earth as an integrated system, whose study must transcend disciplinary boundaries. Earth System Science (ESS) is a holistic approach to the study of the Earth which stresses investigation of the interactions among the Earth's components including core, mantle, lithosphere, oceans, atmosphere, cryosphere and biosphere.
In our design of an ESS curriculum, which utilizes public domain software and remote-sensing data accessible over the Internet, we recognized the value of building a scientific community. The Earth System Science Community Curriculum is a widely-distributed application weaving together people, projects and software into a comprehensive support system for teachers and students. Over the next three years we intend to scale our curriculum from the classroom laboratory to the community testbed.
However, bringing about systemic change requires more than just a demonstration of scalability. It also requires development of leadership in teaching and learning.
The scientific revolution is often attributed to the discoveries of great leaders in science research: Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, Newton. They were, indeed, a new breed of citizen. They were both creative and technical at once. They developed methods which systematized their observations, explorations and experiments; invented tools; and communicated their findings through prolific writing and explicit drawings. Individuals created their own curricula for investigation, demonstrating the need for rennaisance scientists to acquire a diverse skill set, unifying observation, precision in measurement, instrumentation-making and writing.
We are addressing the need for leadership by including students and teachers in the development and evaluation of the curriculum. Our intention is to drive iterative developments of the curriculum with cooperative learning in the classroom and collaborative design and development across the community. The emergence of ESS and the increasing affordability and ease of building information infrastructure present us as educators with an opportunity to experiment with scientific community-making and learn how to practice science in the same way that scientists do. This paper reviews the design of the ESS Community Curriculum Testbed and how it will be enabled by the WorldWideWeb.
The Earth System Science Community Curriculum Testbed
keeler@jacks.gsfc.nasa.gov