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FREE and/or Open Source Desktop Software! => Educational Sites and Programs => Topic started by: Software Santa on September 04, 2010, 02:20:18 PM

Title: Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) is a learning resource site
Post by: Software Santa on September 04, 2010, 02:20:18 PM
Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) is a distributed community effort involving educators, students, and scientists.

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The Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) is a distributed community effort involving educators, students, and scientists working together to improve the quality, quantity, and efficiency of teaching and learning about the Earth system at all levels.

DLESE supports Earth system science education by providing:

Access to high-quality collections of educational resources

Access to Earth data sets and imagery, including the tools and interfaces that enable their effective use in educational settings

Support services to help educators and learners effectively create, use, and share educational resources

Communication networks to facilitate interactions and collaborations across all dimensions of Earth system education

DLESE resources include electronic materials for both teachers and learners, such as lesson plans, maps, images, data sets, visualizations, assessment activities, curriculum, online courses, and much more.

The National Science Foundation provided funding for the development of DLESE which is now operated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Computational and Information Systems Laboratory and the NCAR Library on behalf of the education community.

Educational resources overview

Like your local library, DLESE is made up of a wide variety of resources, collections, and services. DLESE's educational resources include lesson plans, scientific data, visualizations, interactive computer models, and virtual field trips—in short, any web-accessible teaching or learning material. Many of these resources are organized in collections—groups of related resources that reflect a coherent, focused theme, such as the Digital Water Education Library (DWEL) collection. All resources in DLESE have been contributed by community members, are relevant to Earth system science education, and are checked periodically for technical stability. The DLESE Reviewed Collection (DRC) includes those DLESE resources that have been more closely examined and are considered exemplary. Visitors can also view the newest items in the library.

Searching
The value of DLESE is in its careful descriptions of resources and services. These descriptions are created by Earth system educators, scientists, and librarians, and include subject, grade-level, education standards, resource type, technical requirements, creator, publisher, and for a subset of the collection, educational standards..

Find a resource - Searching DLESE is easy. You can search by entering keywords about your topic in the search box. In response, you get descriptions of materials that match your topic; these descriptions help you decide which resource best fits your needs. You can then follow the link to the resource itself. You can refine your search by selecting additional criteria for grade level, resource type, standards, or collections.
Browse resources & collections - Get a sense of the depth and breadth of the entire DLESE collection by subject area, resource type, or grade level and find out more about resources in reviewed and themed collections.
New resources - Scan the resources most recently added to the library.
Searching by educational standards
The ability to search by educational standards allows you to append additional criteria to your search to better target your needs. Currently the National Science Education Content Standards (NSES) and the National Geography Standards are available. The NSES are hierarchical and allow you to choose grade level, broad topic, and ability, while the National Geography Standards are a list of 18 concepts grouped by topic only.

The association of a standard with a resource signifies that the content of the resource supports the student learning and attainment of the specific ability noted. This can be through many different mechanisms and resource types, including access to background and text-based material as well as inquiry-based activities. Some standards are general in nature, some more specific. The resource need not address the entire scope of the standard for the association to be made, and some resources may not map to any standards at all.

http://www.dlese.org/ (http://www.dlese.org/)