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.

Portfolio Space
The portfolio is the place where you submit your individual and team assignments. When you submit an assignment, you will use a rubric to rate it and provide a rationale for your rating. Your facilitator will also rate it, as well as your classmates when they are acting as critical friends. You will be able to review all the ratings and comments.

Local Event Space
You may choose to complete an optional Local Event System Analysis at the end of each three-week cycle (Weeks 6, 9, 12, and 15). For this analysis, 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. This is great experience in applying the Earth system science concepts to your local events. Consider writing your classroom application about this local event.

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 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.