Stevens demonstrates real-time adventures on the Internet at this week's 2001 National Education Summit

More than half the nation's governors and several dozen top business leaders are gathered today and tomorrow for the 2001 National Education Summit in Palisades, N.Y. At the summit, these leaders will see a demonstration by Stevens Institute of Technology's award-winning program that trains teachers to use the Internet effectively in the classroom. The Stevens program is among only six selected by summit organizers to show how classroom curriculum can be improved with technology.

Stevens' Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) will make the demonstration at the summit. The center was established in 1988 to help bring the Stevens' technology experience to the K-12 sector. The center has pioneered the development of Internet-based lessons for schoolchildren. Currently, it is helping train 10,000 teachers of more than a quarter of a million children in the United States and abroad.

The CIESE presentation at the summit will be given by Dr. Edward Friedman, professor of technology management at Stevens and founding director of CIESE, and Rosalie Moran, the technology facilitator for the Bayonne, N.J., school district, a longtime collaborator with CIESE. These two experts will demonstrate "Real Time Adventures on the Internet: Applying Knowledge in the Real World," two illustrative lessons using real-time data.

One lesson, titled "Traveling on a Jet Stream," uses real-time weather data to provide an engaging set of science learning experiences. Another lesson, "The Stowaway Adventure: Adventures on the High Seas," uses real-time data from the Internet to track a real ship at sea, determine its destination and predict when it will arrive.

In "The Stowaway Adventure" lesson, students become virtual navigators, plotting ships' courses and evaluating the effects of ocean currents and weather conditions on their progress. This exercise requires students to use mathematics skills, develop geography and mapping skills, and use social and cultural information about countries engaged in international trade. Writing and language arts skills come into play as students present their findings through web-based publishing and conduct e-mail exchanges with other students in port cities around the world.

The lessons referenced above may be fully explored online at: ciese.org/presentations/summit2001. Of interest within that site is an example of a lesson-related e-mail, with pictures, created by students at the New Century School in Karachi, Pakistan. To see that example, click on "E-mail Exchange, Example # 1."

"We're honored to be invited to present at this year's National Education Summit," said Dr. Friedman. "We also presented at the Latin American summit in Miami earlier this year, and we are gratified to see intense interest in the kind of unique and compelling Internet applications we can now create and train teachers to use for K-12 education."

The superintendent of Bayonne, N.J.'s award-winning schools, agrees:

"We've formed a premiere partnership with Stevens for very good reasons," said Superintendent Patricia McGeehan. "We have seen clearly how to use the Internet to go beyond what you can do with a textbook - to use real-time data - and that creates a wonderfully exciting atmosphere in the classroom."

Rosalie Moran, the Bayonne technology facilitator presenting with Dr. Friedman at the summit, was previously an 8th grade science teacher with particular strengths in the use of technology, McGeehan added. "She's really cutting-edge, and she's done a lot of training with our teachers now, which helped us achieve the prestigious Blue-Ribbon School designation."

At Stevens' CIESE, Dr. Friedman works collaboratively with teachers, schools system administrators and other educational stakeholders to provide intensive, hands-on training, support and counsel to infuse technology in meaningful ways into the curriculum. Prior to founding CIESE, Dr. Friedman served as Dean of the College of Stevens, where he oversaw groundbreaking programs to integrate computers and networking into college science and engineering instruction.

More information on CIESE is available at ciese.org

More information about the summit is at: achieve.org

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

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