Joseph Abraham, co-sponsored by the University of Arizona Department of Geography and Regional Development

A significant number of Arizona’s college students begin or complete their college education in community colleges. Although Arizona’s universities and main community college campuses are geographically proximate, there is limited application of university research in community college curriculum. My NASA Space Grant project improves community college students’ awareness and appreciation of scientific research by developing curriculum that incorporates research conducted at Arizona universities. My philosophy is to create educational materials that introduce students to the principles and process of conducting scientific research, and illustrate how such research contributes to larger societal goals. For my project I am working with instructors at Pima and Mesa Community Colleges in Tucson and Mesa to improve science education materials that address the use of remote sensing technology. Collectively, the two courses serve a student population that has a significant proportion of minorities and ‘non-traditional’ students that represent the target audience of this outreach project.

At Pima I am improving and expanding web-based laboratory materials for a self-paced introductory environmental biology course. The course satisfies a general-educational science requirement, and thus the vast majority of students enrolled in the class are non-science majors. Students work through the web-based labs at a main campus learning center where other self-paced science courses are also supported. Approximately 100 students are enrolled in the course each semester and approximately 200 students are enrolled in sections taught by other instructors.

During the fall of 2004 I became familiar with the learning center lab environment, and developed an outline for improving lab materials. I have visited the learning center several times to become more familiar with the resources available to students. I have reviewed lab materials and worked with Pima instructors to identify specific areas for improvement. I have also identified several recent and ongoing applications of remote sensing technology to incorporate into the lab materials including the RangeView program at the University of Arizona and applications of the SeaWiFS project. In early 2005 I will be developing new web-based labs for use during the spring 2005 semester. Labs will be evaluated by learning center aids, instructors, and students. Based on evaluations, the labs will be refined for subsequent courses during the summer and fall.

At Mesa I am working with an instructor in the GIS certificate program to develop coursework materials for a new remote sensing course. Since many of the students in the program go on to work for local governments, coursework I develop will focus on accessing and utilizing web-based remote sensing data and images. The remote sensing course was scheduled for the fall 2004 semester, but was cancelled due to low enrollment. The course is under review and is scheduled for fall 2005. During the spring 2005 semester I will work with the instructor to organize a syllabus that includes web-based exercises that leverage research projects and remote sensing databases at Arizona’s universities.