Initial Publication Date: February 10, 2011

Student Research

Overview

In this space, your students will be able to share the results from their research projects and explore projects done by other students all over the country.

Pages containing student projects will be private, much like the Eyes in the Sky II Web Course discussion pages. These pages will only be viewable by other students/teachers participating in the showcase.

Submission Guidelines

Each project will get its own web page on the Eyes in the Sky II website. Students can generate these pages themselves using one of three online forms. Students should submit their projects using the form best suited to how they would like to share their work with the rest of the Eyes in the Sky II community.

Use the Virtual Poster Submission Form to share the results of your research with other students as a virtual poster. (See Example Project 1)
Use the PowerPoint Submission Form to share the results of your research with other students as a PowerPoint Presentation. (See Example Project 2)
Use the Community Atlas Submission Form to share the results of your research with other students as a Community Atlas Project. (See Example Project 3)

In order to submit a project and comment on other projects, students will need to register for an account on the SERC CMS (just like you did at the beginning of the Eyes in the Sky II Web Course). We will provide each teacher with 20 unique "dummy" email addresses and passwords to be used by their students. These email addresses will serve as login names that will give students access to the Virtual Showcase pages. However, they will not be functional email addresses. You can assign email addresses and passwords to your students and create the accounts for them or send an email to the Eyes in the Sky II Team (eyesskyteam@serc.carleton.edu) with a list of student names and we will create the accounts for you.

Depending on how your students conducted their research project(s), they may have a single class project, a few group projects, or many individual projects to submit. You are only required to have one project submitted by your students to fulfill your student research requirement for the Eyes in the Sky II program. However, your students may submit more than one project if you wish. We recommend you limit your class submissions to 20 projects or less. Please send an email to the Eyes in the Sky Team (eyesskyteam@serc.carleton.edu) if you wish to have more than 20 projects submitted by your students.

How to Create Student Accounts

Go to http://serc.carleton.edu/admin. Make sure you are not logged into your own CMS account.
Click on the "Create a New Account" link on the right-hand side of the screen.
Fill in the Email Address field with one of the dummy email addresses designated for your students. You must use one of these email addresses to login or the system will not recognize you. Make sure you use the passwords assigned to each email address and keep track of who each email/password combination is assigned to.
Fill in all of the remaining requested information and click the "Register Now" button.
Repeat for additional accounts.

Suggestions for setting up accounts:

Individual Students: If 20 accounts is enough to cover all of your students, simply create one account per student using the instructions above.
2-3 students: If you have more than 20 students, you may want to consider having 2-3 students share accounts. When setting up the accounts on the CMS, we suggest you include each student's name. For example, if you are creating an account to be shared by John Smith and Mary Jones, you might enter "John Smith and" as the first name, and "Mary Jones" for the last name associated with the account.
Larger groups of students: If you have more than 20 students and they are spread out across different classes, you might also consider setting up accounts for small groups or even whole classes. For example, "Ms. Smith's 3rd period Ecology class."

Prizes

The best projects will receive cash awards in the amount of $500 for first place, $250 for second place, and $100 for third place. Projects can be submitted by individuals, teams, or whole classes. In the case of team or class entries, the cash award will be split equally among the winning team/class members. Teachers of first place prize winners will also receive a $500 award. By default, Eyes in the Sky staff members will notify teachers only about prizes. It will then be your responsibility to notify your students and present them with their awards. However, if your students would also like to be notified directly if they win a prize, please have them fill out a Prize Notification Form.

Prizes will be awarded for the following categories:

Field-Collected Data Project
Most Creative/Innovative project
Community-focused project
Best incorporation of Eyes in the Sky perspective

Resources for Student Research

Here are some useful resources to help you plan your student research projects.

Student Research Presentation (PowerPoint 16.2MB Dec2 10): Power Point outlining features to include in your Student Research Projects.
Thacher Environmental Research Contest: The 2011 Thacher Environmental Research Contest, sponsored by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, challenges high school students (grades 9-12) to conduct innovative research on our changing planet using the latest geospatial tools and data, which in recent years have become increasingly accessible to the public.
[linkhttps://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2016/11/04/november-2016-living-atlas-community-webinar-recording-available/ 'ESRI Community Webinars' new]: Check out the November 4 Webinar, "Fast Web Mapping with ArcGIS Explorer Online and Community Atlas" about how to use ESRI's free browser-based GIS, ArcGIS Explorer Online to create a Community Atlas with students.
EPA's 2008 Report on the Environment: This report uses scientifically sound measures, called indicators, to address fundamental questions relevant to the EPA's mission to protect the environment and human health.
Expedition Earth and Beyond: Bring rigor and relevance to your classroom and have your students be transformed into scientists as they explore Earth and other planetary bodies in our solar system. Stunning images are the hook to help students not only want to learn about Earth processes, but to provide them with the opportunity to get involved with NASA in the process of exploration, discovery, and science.
Hubbard Brook GIS Mapping Project (Acrobat (PDF) 2.7MB Jul11 10) and Hubbard Brook Maps (Acrobat (PDF) 703kB Jul11 10) for ESRI Community Atlas Project: Service Learning Project done by Ina Ahern and her students in New Hampshire
More Student Projects: Environmental MyWorld GIS projects done by Betsy Youngman's science students at Phoenix Country Day School. Topics include Climate Change, Oceanography and Marine Biology.
NASA Earth Observatory Experiments : Interactive experiments that can be used to teach all ages about the art and science of space-based remote sensing. The experiments focus on how NASA uses remote sensing to study how and why the Earth changes.
GIS Etc. GPS Loaner Program: GISetc and Geological Society of America Education have joined together to offer the GPS Loaner Program. Class sets of Garmin eTrex GPS units are available for a two week loan to educators who would like to introduce GPS technology to their students, but who are not in a position to invest in units.