World Wide Biome Project

John Cordukes began teaching as a way to combine his love of biology and working outdoors with his desire to make a difference in students' lives. One notable way he has achieved that goal is with his World Wide Biome Project, an interactive website for biology students around the world.

The site provides students with a standard method of investigating the biomes they live in (a biome is a large geographic region with characteristic climate and topography) and a forum to publish their scientific findings, explains Cordukes. Participants in the World Wide Biome Project can also obtain comparative data from other biomes around the world and learn to integrate computer skills with ecological sampling skills.

In 1997, when Cordukes realized the educational opportunity offered by the Internet, he approached his school board for server space. He purchased the necessary software, wrote the content, created the site, indexed it to search engines and contacted all the educational websites he could find seeking other participants. The site now contains data from all over the world, including the following:

• the Antarctic Peninsula Shoreline Study, a report from the Students on Ice expedition to the Antarctic
• Plant Identification and Land Use Reform: student research and planning for a community property in Kenya
• Intertidal Shoreline Study: Taipa, New Zealand
• Riparian Chaparral Study: Poway Elementary School, California
• Coniferous Forest/Stream Study: Koliganek School, Koliganek, Alaska.

Using real-life data students collect themselves, instead of invented data from a textbook, brings a different dimension to hands-on learning, observes Cordukes. The students have a reason to carry out field work and data collection, and they are engaged in their learning and motivated to continue ecology studies. They also gain practice in integrating scientific and technological skills, a necessary combination in scientific work today.