Virtual Study Spaces

Virtual Study Spaces
The various spaces listed below are where you will study and work individually and with the other participants and your facilitator. You will need to link to these actual spaces through the virtual online Classroom. An overview of what you will do in each virtual study space is included below.

Sphere Space
You will work in Sphere Space during Weeks 4, 7, 10, and 13. You will come together with the other members of your Sphere Group to study how the effects of an event reverberate throughout the earth's four spheres: hydrosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, and atmosphere. However, to better understand the complexity of these reverberations, you will need to take an in depth look at each sphere. Therefore, you and your Sphere Group will focus on one sphere at a time and consider how it might be impacted by one major event.

Event Space
You will work in Event Space during Weeks 5, 8, 11, and 14, following Sphere Study. You and your Event Team will analyze how events (deforestation, volcanoes, sea ice melting, hurricanes) directly affect specific spheres, how the affected spheres may trigger changes in the other spheres, and how any of the changes may impact the event itself. For each event, you and your Event Team will write causal chains that synthesize your team's analyses of the event and its impact on the spheres.

Classroom Application Space
You will work in Classroom Application Space in Weeks 6, 9, 12, and 15, following Event Study. You will work independently to design or locate a classroom application for your students. While designing or locating a classroom application, you should reflect on the analyses conducted with your Sphere Group and Event Team and think about how you can transfer what you have learned into teaching practice.

Journal Space
You will reflect in your journal every week. The purpose of the online journal is for you to keep a personal account of your progress throughout the course. You are to record your thoughts, beliefs, concerns, successes, and even your aborted successes--experiences from which you have learned but may want to avoid in the future. Of special significance will be those entries that reflect modifications to your beliefs about teaching and learning. Keep in mind that your journal entries are not only a factor in your final grade, but they are also meant to help you grow as a professional. The only persons with access to your entries will be you and the facilitator.

You will also submit your Final Project in Journal Space. The purpose of completing the individual Final Project is for you to demonstrate that you have gained an appreciation and understanding of Earth system science and to show how your ESS knowledge has expanded as a result of taking this course.

Local Event Space
You can complete an optional Local Event System Analysis at the end of each three-week cycle (Weeks 6, 9, 12, and 15). For this analysis, you can find a local event and discuss how that local event affects the four spheres. An example might be the creation of a dam on a local river or the development of a shopping center in your community. You are applying the Earth system science concepts to your local events.

Course Space
The facilitator uses Course Space to give instructions, clarify concepts, and answer questions; participants use Course Space to request guidance, reply to the facilitator’s queries, and--in Week 1--submit their biographies and meet the other course participants.

Resource Space
Throughout the course, the developers, facilitator, and participants may submit those resources thought to be particularly useful both to participating teachers' professional development and their students' use in the classroom. These resources may be designed by you, or they may simply be compelling activities you have found (e.g., on the Internet, on one of the course's CDs, or other sources). They may include compelling and/or favorite web sites or activities you have found or used.

Please remember that some materials are copyrighted. Be sure to include a full citation. If they are commercial, the source must be cited.