“SeaMaven: A Web-based Virtual Learning Environment” by Demmers
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Title:
- SeaMaven: A Web-based Virtual Learning Environment
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Abstract:
Researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (SkIO) have partnered on an NSF funded program to develop SeaMaven, a prototype virtual learning environment (VLE). SeaMaven is designed to enable middle school science students to actively engage in collaborative learning in the environmental sciences. The application provides students with a web-based interface to an offshore observational network of platform-based sensors for monitoring oceanographic and meteorological processes. Students can use SeaMaven to make atmospheric and hydrology measurements of the marine environment off the Georgia/South Carolina coast in near real-time.
The technologies that make this program possible have been developed by Skidaway scientists over the course of the last several years, through their work on the South Atlantic Bight Synoptic Offshore Observational Network (SABSOON). The SABSOON program makes use of eight offshore platforms owned and operated by the U.S. Navy. These platforms are situated approximately 60 miles offshore on the southeastern continental shelf. The system of environmental sensors and broadband telecommunications facilities that they support is designed to provide project researchers, and eventually scientists worldwide, with a continuous stream of information on coastal ocean conditions from this important and fragile ecosystem. The intent is to develop an offshore facility that can host a variety of scientific, educational, and environmental monitoring applications. SeaMaven provides an important outreach component for this program.
