Cyberways & Waterways® Program
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
4empowerment is dedicated to making a positive difference in individuals by fostering life-long learners, leaders, and communities. Our flagship program, Cyberways & Waterways, is a virtual community based on innovative online and field activities surrounding rivers, coastlines, and lakes. Through hands-on activities in water quality, biodiversity, and garbology studies, students learn about science and gain critical thinking skills, technology expertise, and life skills. Using the Cyberways & Waterways online tools provided on 4empowerment’s web site, students publish their findings and take action by learning to communicate results effectively to others.
COMMUNICATION/COLLABORATION
The Cyberways & Waterways online community is hosted on 4empowerment’s website, www.4empowerment.com. The e-learning website provides students and teachers with their own personal project management area to upload data, create projects and reports, record their observations, and collaborate with other schools across the state through private discussion boards. Once published, projects and reports are publicly viewable online, allowing students to share research with the community. Students can research a database of information through the innovative online mapping of rivers, creeks, and coastlines. Online chat rooms will allow students and teachers to communicate with peers, mentors, and science industry professionals around the world.
ENGAGING, TECHNOLOGY RICH, REAL WORLD LEARNING
The Cyberways & Waterways model engages students through the seamless integration of technology and leverages the use of the Environment as an Integrated Context for learning, a framework developed by the State Environment Educators Roundtable. This winning combination fosters engaged learners, 21st century digital literacy skills, student academic achievement, and the real world application of essential knowledge and skills.
LEADERSHIP & TEAMWORK
Cyberways and Waterways helps to build important leadership skills, such as the ability to think critically, solve problems, engage others, and communicate effectively. Students design and conduct team projects studying the quality of the local environment. Using the secure online collaboration tools, data from these studies is collected, synthesized, and concluded into a report published online to a broad local, state, and national audience. Students continue to take action by presenting their findings to school boards, city councils, and other influential bodies requiring strong communication skills and leadership energy.
SERVICE LEARNING, ENVIRONMENT, & COMMUNITY
Students engage in relevant, standards-aligned activities that foster community service and pride in the environment. During garbology studies, students pick up trash and analyze ways to reduce sources of litter in order to beautify their local community. In water quality studies, students learn about healthy water systems and conduct tests on local lakes, creeks, and rivers to monitor the health of the local environment.
Please go to http://www.4empowerment.com to:
- View students’ activities, data and reports
- Check out the field photo gallery
- Download environmental activities
- Eavesdrop on student chats with scientists, writers, business leaders, and others