We encourage teachers and students to utilize this technology for science education in which the information obtained plays a unique and important role. In evaluating this use of the technology we ask teachers to use the criteria of whether the information obtained from the remote site has content that they could not obtain locally or if the remote site has physical conditions of particular interest. Depending on the issues being studied, latitude, altitude, air quality, ecosystem, etc. are all variables that can underpin useful collaborations. One collaboration that can make good use of Internet technology involves study of pond water. This has been a classic activity for elementary school science students for many years.
Students gather samples from a local pond and examine the organisms they find with microscopes.
They can also examine the inflow and outflow of the pond, as well as the oxygen content and chemical characteristics of the water. All of these measurements and observations help students understand their local ecology. Using the Internet, students share their observations with peers living in quite different parts of the world. Students are fascinated to discover the number of similarities that exist. Finding the same microorganisms at locations separated by almost 10,000 miles is astonishing to students who trade information between New Jersey and Japan.