Students participating in the I*EARN Rope Pump Project, have raised over $10,000 in the past three years to fund the digging of wells and the installation of rope pumps in villages where people were drinking from polluted streams or from contaminated wells. A system is being set up so students involved in the project can communicate with children in the villages on a regular basis.
Student also can become Hubble Space Telescope (HST) "Co-Investigators", working alongside some of America's foremost astronomers. The Passport to Knowledge team is about to travel via the Hubble telescope to outer space to visit Neptune and Pluto, destinations that students help determine. Reading journals kept by scientists involved in the project is an excellent way to develop writing skills. Or students and teachers can find partners in many of the other projects from NASA K-12 Internet Initiative.
The Education Department's Ask Eric resource keeps a list of lessons plans that are organized around television programs which sometimes provide schools are way to find experts and with other schools working with this material.
Seniors Partners in Education matches adult letter writers with Junior Partners throughout the United States. Although Junior Partners range in age from kindergarten to teenagers, the typical junior writer is a 10-year-old, joining classmates in this activity. The charge a small fee for the matching service.
Another service that matches students into projects that are focused on the health of our physical and social world is the International Education and Resource Network (I*EARN). Students can join on a wide range of projects or join a project-based Learning Circle.
Students can use the internet to take part in Video
Conferences. Or, if they are looking for others to have videoconferences with, they
can try using the CUSeeMe matchmaker.
Unicef sponsors a Voices of Youth site with meeting places where students can share their ideas with students around the world on issues like , and . Students can also find tools for working together on social issues at Mighty Media.
High school students can arrange to visit other countries or to host an "exchange" student in their homes through YFU: Youth For Understanding International Exchange Program
Teachers and students looking for collaborative projects might want to check Internet Project Registry maintained by the Global School House.
Teachers will find communities of partners and many human and informational sources at the Internet Online Institute, Global School House and I*EARN.
Return to
Internet & the Humanities, The Human Side of Networking
Comments?
Margaret Riel (mriel@iearn.org).