1999 Conference Attendee

The Web-based Integrated Science Environment (WISE) provides a powerful new form of on-line curriculum activities. Each curriculum project consists of a series of activities that involve diverse materials from the Internet, as well as from classroom discussions and even hands-on experiments. Students typically work in pairs or small groups and perform a wide range of on-line activities, including the use of unique new visualizations. All student work is managed by our central server, and incorporated into assessments that are integral to the curriculum design. The design of WISE software and curriculum follows our theoretical framework of Scaffolded Knowledge Integration (Linn, 1995).

Successful authoring of WISE curriculum requires a partnership of natural scientists, teachers, and educational researchers. The WISE Malaria partnership was formed to create a curriculum project that helped students build connections to one of the World's major health issues. Malaria was chosen as a topic because it involves ongoing controversy among scientists concerning how to control the spread of the disease. Previous research in the KIE and WISE Projects has explored the use of such controversies from science in the making as an effective source of science curriculum.

While the disease of Malaria affects populations mainly in the central latitudes of our planet, it is truly a global issue. The WISE Cycles of Malaria project helps students understand the controversial choice (e.g., in allocation of funding) between pursuing vaccine and drug treatment research, pesticide development, or social programs for controlling Malaria's spread. The conceptual content of this project provides a wealth of opportunity for students to develop rich and multidisciplinary understanding of this controversy. Two international members of the Malaria partnership are translating the project into Norwegian for implementation in their own country.