ASU Research E-Magazine: Earth Vision

Mathematics and science just are not what they used to be. The subjects are more complex, more center stage. They also are a whole heck of a lot more fun if you happen to be a part of Sam DiGangi’s Arizona Earth Vision project.

DiGangi’s project gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘hands on’ research. The work places high-end computers, real-world research techniques, and technical expertise directly into the hands of students at four Arizona high schools.

DiGangi is an associate professor of special education at Arizona State University. His Earth Vision project strives to integrate sophisticated technology and sound environmental science with real world applications. Doing so will ensure that students are more motivated and better prepared for the ever-changing and increasingly technical world in which we live.

Arizona Earth Vision students use high-end computer graphics while conducting environmental research projects right in their neighborhoods. School advisors teach research techniques and direct the day-to-day aspects of each project.

DiGangi’s task is to ensure that computers help create meaningful, multidimensional graphic models of relevant data. He’s also charged himself with encouraging students to share that which they find.

“The biggest surprise so far is the interest in and extent to which the students have contacted us,” DiGangi explains. “They’ve really wanted to use the technology. They’ve also actively reached out to share what they’ve learned.”

His students regularly share data via student-led workshops and over the Internet. While excitement is definitely one common denominator, the schools and students involved in Earth Vision are otherwise as diverse as the projects they have chosen to pursue.

Monument Valley High School, for example, is located on the Navajo Indian reservation in remote Kayenta, Ariz. DiGangi says that while students there are extremely well-versed in tradition and nature, they eagerly embrace technology.

Monument Valley students use Earth Vision resources to research possible causes for benzene contaminants in their latest water well. Their findings, questions, and school homepage are shared on the Internet.

In Phoenix, Coronado High is located in an area designated as a federal Superfund cleanup site. Coronado students are researching the rate at which the toxin trichloroethylene (TCE) diffuses through ground water in the area.

Besides regularly quizzing experts on-line, most Coronado project members also created detailed personal homepages.

Such diversity is not random. DiGangi is interested in exactly how well mathematics, science, and technology can be used to bridge previously significant geographic, socio-economic, and cultural differences.

“I’ve set three personal goals for Earth Vision,” DiGangi says. “Increasing awareness among students of environmental issues, providing them a skill set that includes research methods and computation, and developing their expertise at using interactive computer resources.”

Earth Vision is clearly no “learn and shelve the data” lesson. In fact, it has become a successful prototype of the interactive math/science project ASU researchers are working to create.

That project, called the Arizona Collaborative for Excellence in Preparation of Teachers (ACEPT), is geared primarily toward reforming key science and mathematics courses taken by students intending to work as teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade.

ACEPT team members are charged with preparing teachers and their students for the more complex and faster-changing world in which we live. The tool is to better integrate math, science, and technology into daily life. —Lindsey Michaels