The next day, Chris and his team are using Netscape to search for information about water use on the World Wide Web using the Yahoo search engine. Another group is using a variety of CD-ROM disks that contain images and information. Another group is investigating properties of water in the lab. The teacher encourages the students to find out more, to go back to their sources and get substantiation. Students decide that it might be something in the water that caused the fish kill and that it would be useful to find out what is in the water, so water samples are brought in to the classroom.
Appropriate technology is used to collect and analyze water data.
Telecommunications is used to gather data and for collaborative research with experts and other students. One group of students is working with experts from the Illinois Water Survey and the Geological Survey via electronic mail. Other students are using ClarisWorks spreadsheet to collect and analyze data on the large quantites of water used routinely in a home. Some students have decided that they need to talk to Greg Cargill at the Metropolitan Sanitary District to find out what happens with our waste water. So they call him.