Sharing NASA projects have a long history of supporting online collaborative projects, most recent of which included the Planet Explorer Toolkit, a feature of Mars Team Online, which challenged students to develop a planetary exploration toolkit. The purpose of collaborative projects is to enrich and expand the understanding of scientific and engineering principles behind NASA projects and to promote interaction between classrooms across the globe. Each collaborative project has clear goals and objectives with opportunities for interaction with NASA experts, project staff, and other classrooms. A specific common goal, based on the premise of the value of teamwork and consensus building, drives the online interactions. Timelines define specific weekly activities and logistics.
Online interactions take place via email lists and the web.
All people participating in the WTOD project must join the online collaborative email discussion list. In your message tell us who you are and why you are interested. Participants will first introduce themselves by sharing information about their class, school, community, and selves. Each member of the discussion forum will receive a copy of all messages posted to this list address. Students are encouraged to submit messages to the forum with their teacher's review and approval.