1. Education Vocabulary

assessment- the process of monitoring both student learning and also the effectiveness of the learning environment (ie authentic assessment is often associated with diagnostic, nonjudgmental, suggestive, and goal-related techniques).

cooperatively based learning - learning undertaken in collaborative student groups or teams.

engaged students - those students challenged on multiple levels where academic learning is connected to the social and economic world of the student using the four C's: cooperation, collaboration, coordination, and communication.

formative - an act of development, of giving form or shape to something or of developing; (ie assessment is formative in contrast to grades which are summative).

incidental learning - a teaching method whereby the specific lesson being taught is not selected by the teacher, only the path to the learning is teacher directed. What is learned is driven more by the student's interest than by the teacher's guidance. Examples include a CD simulating a drive across the country making choices based on geography, or shop class where students desgin a project which entails use of their math and geometry concepts.

inquiry-based learning - see Topic 4 in "Forum Goals and Discussion Topics."

integrated curriculum - a synergistic approach to curriculum development in which the core subjects, in conjunction with technology, are taught together so that students are exposed to the enriching connections existing among disciplines.

pedagogy - theory of teaching.

VHS - Virtual High School http://vhs.concord.org/Pages/Campus+Life+Newspaper which started as a project of the Hudson Public Schools and the Concord consortium. In exchange for contributing a small amount of teaching time, a school in the collaborative can offer its students NetCourses ranging from advanced academic courses to technical and speciality courses. Each school provides a VHS site coordinator responsible for project management and support of teachers and students at their local school. Each school can enroll up to 20 students for each course a teacher contributes.

2. Technology and Scientific Research Vocabulary

csv - comma separated variable electronic computer file (ie x, y, z) format enabling file exchange between software packages, ie an excel file is usually stored in the excel format but can be 'save as' a csv file and then able to be imported into any text editor.

data set - a grouping (set) of data.  Data can be grouped by different principles;  for example, by variable(characteristic measured), sampling location, duration of studies or by a combination of such factors.  Data from several sets can be drawn together to make up a new data set.

ftp - file transfer protocol is a software technique (now a ftp software package using the ftp protocol) for transfering files from one platform to another (ie from one pc to another pc, or from one pc to a mac, or from one pc to a unix location). Computer servers are often configured to have available an anonymous ftp area permitting transfer to and from the computer even without a user account name and password.
 
long-term research - see discussion in "Creating a Long-Term Perspective in Classroom Science."

metadata - documentation information about a data set, instrumentation, sampling design and protocols.