Website features that guide and support student research

Getting Started

When students go to the website, an animation flashes sample research questions. If your students are taking the pre- and post-test, each member of a research group must complete the pre-test before they can start using the website. Then when they log in, they see the navigation bar, three quick links and the project map.

Navigation Bar

Most menu items have submenus. When you roll over the navigation bar, all the submenus show up. Here is how it looks when you roll over "Library."

Quick Links

• Cool Science - Who Cares? An introduction to cosmic ray research.
• Explore! - Get comfortable! Find out what's in the website with a graphical overview.
• About Us - Who are we? An introduction to the collaboration.

Project Map

Think of this map as a subway map with one main line and four branch lines. Along the main line are stops, milestone seminars, opportunities to check how the work is going. Off each main stop are branch lines where each stop is a project milestone. The branch lines include:

• The Basics: Reviews basic research skills.
• Get Started: Prepares the team to design their investigation with links to information about cosmic rays, the detector and a research proposal.
• Figure It Out: Prepares the team to ananlyze data with links to how to take and upload data, use data search parameters, choose analysis tools, etc.
• Tell Others: Prepares the team to enter into scientific discourse. Links to how to write up investigation, create a poster and comment on the work of others.

We provide an alternate text version for accessiblity.

Glossary and References

The website has a glossary and references for the milestones (accessed by clicking on the milestone in the graphical version and on the icon in the text version). Entries show in pop-up windows when a definition or reference is needed. The entire glossary is available from the Library submenu.

e-Logbook - Opportunities for Feedback

Because this is a student-led, teacher-guided investigation, it is important for students to get frequent feedback.

As students work through the milestones, they have access to an online logbook where they can save their notes. They can enter notes for each milestone and into general notes. They can respond to teacher prompts to reflect on their progress. Teachers are able to access this work, track and assess student progress and provide feedback.

Teachers also have a logbook in which they can make notes on teaching strategies, resources, etc. for the next year. Access is through a link in upper right-hand corner on every page.
From their logbook, teachers can access entries:

• By milestone for all their student research groups.
• By student research group.
• They have written about each research group in their private logbooks.

Resources

On the Library submenu is a link to references that include:

• Tutorials: Step-by step instructions and tutorials for each of the studies.
• Contacts: Experts and student research groups.
• Online: Other URLs of interest.
• Animations: Aids to help students understand detector, and how the collaboration relies on grid techniques.

Posters

Students may publish their work as a poster or a paper. We provide a webform for them to enter text, select figures from the website and uploaded images of their own.

Associated with posters are areas for comments. This allows students to comment on the work of other students and ask questions.

Site Index and Site Overview

The student site index has a list in outline format of all the pages on this site available to students.

The student site overview provides a graphical interface to important pages on this site available to students. Just roll over the main sections to see the items available for access in each section. This same interface is accessible from the "Explore!" quick link on the home page. Your students may like it as an easy way to get around the website. Here the student has rolled over the Library and exposed the Library links.