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"racerocks.com" is designed to provide the content for a variety of educational and research experiences for students of all ages. This index provides links to specific objectives of a number of curricula that can use the content of racerocks.com.

We always encourage contributions from other educators with further ideas for activities associated with this web site. If you can suggest ideas for this site to target specific objectives, we would welcome your input. If we can make this a useful resource for distance education then our goal is achieved.

OCEANQUEST
OceanQuest
With the support of Open Schools BC, this curriculum guide to activities at Race Rocks provides curriculum related activities at Junior and high school level which feature the following topics:
Topic 1: Biodiversity
Structure and Function of Ecosystems :

Why not Adopt an Ecosystem?

Topic 2: Abiotic Factors
Selected Abiotic Factors (such as Barometric Pressure)
Limiting Factors and the Ecological Niche

Topic 3 : Animal Behaviour
Population Monitoring:
The Ethology Assignment:

Jason The Jason Program activity files on Race Rocks:
These files are designed for the Middle School Level. They provide a detailed set of objectives and a teacher information file, as well as assessment methods.
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/jason/index.html
Scavenger Hunt (An introduction to the racerocks.com website)
Geology and Geography (Abiotic Characteristics at Race Rocks),
Preserving the Past and Present Culture of Race Rocks (The Thirteen Moons),
Maintaining our Coastal Ecosystems (An Ethology),
The Northern Abalone,
Pinnipeds,
Conservation,
Seascape - Art
ALI
In June of 2002, The APPLE LEARNING INTERCHANGE OPENED THE NEW GALLERY OF FEATURED EXHIBITS . Race Rocks has been included on the ALI websight as one of their exhibits.
The Apple Learning Interchange is providing the distribution network on the internet for our live video, making it possible for thousands of student connections per week. This exhibit provides one with a glimpse of the educational programs, the technology that makes it possible, as well as ideas to help use our resources in the classroom.
http://ali.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/ALIView.woa/wa/DisplayExhibit?SiteCode=ali&ExhibitID=1000007
STRATEGIES FOR A SUSTAINABLE MARINE FUTURE
The over-arching concept of this resource is what marine environmental sustainability means locally and how people can be encouraged to commit to contribute to the process.

International Baccalaureate Curricula Biology Higher Level-ecology Topic 4 and Option G: The objectives of the IB program for secondary students are linked to appropriate activities and resources in this file.
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/education/curricula/ibbiology/bioecol.htm
Biology- Taxonomy : The objectives for the IB Biology Classification Unit are linked here:
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/education/curricula/ibbiology/classification.htm
Environmental Systems: The objectives of the IB Environmental Systems program for secondary students are linked to appropriate activities and resources in this file :
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/Envsystem/c_env/ensysyllabus.htm
British Columbia Education BC Biology Grade 11 curriculum references
Selected Biology Prescribed Learning Outcomes are taken from the B.C.Ministry of Education K-12 Curriculum and Learning . The Outcomes which are related to Race Rocks are presented on this page with racerocks.com links
ADDITIONAL USEFUL CURRICULUM ASSIGNMENTS

The Race Rocks Taxonomy:
This resource originally was constructed with the contributions of students in environmental systems and biology.The objective was to present the images and videos of the organisms of Race Rocks in their habitats along with the organization of a taxonomic outline.This provides a model of a useful activity where students can accomplish a number of objectives while building the references for a specific ecosystem. This taxonomy also presents a template to encourage other schools to use a similar approach for recognition and conservation of biodiversity in their own local ecosystems.


Coastal Ecosystems of Southern Vancouver Island.

The contiguous Ecosystems in the District of Metchosin are highlighted along with the anthropogenic effects on habitat.




Adopt an Ecosystem Project:
Environmental Education involving science students at undergraduate levels in direct action is the goal of our program at Pearson College. We have found that the production by students of internet materials on environmental issues is a vehicle for doing this effectively. This is a tool, which provides incentive for environmental understanding and encouragement of an "adopting an ecosystem" attitude that can have important consequences in education. The emphasis is on "action" and seeking methods to enable collaboration with others to help solve environmental problems. Students at Lester B. Pearson College have been learning about environmental issues by producing materials for the internet, a "Digital Legacy". In this way, their education has the added advantage of serving as a resource for others in the educational system in British Columbia and around the world. It also allows them to participate in facilitating collaborative efforts in environmental research.

Other Educational References Available on racerocks.com:
Race Rocks as a Resource for a Statistics exercise.
The purpose of this file is to enable a student to transfer Environmental Data being recorded at Race Rocks from an EXCEL spread sheet presented on the internet to their own computer in order to be able to graph trends and analyze relationships. Long-term databases are very important for monitoring change in ecosystems. Patterns of cyclic activity and even events such as Climate Change can be detected from the Race Rocks Data.
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/education/curricula/ibbiology/labairseatemp.htm
The Ecological Niche and The Transect File:
These two files demonstrate useful ecological quantification techniques and allow an interactive format for the students to study this aspect of ecology. They further provide a model for doing similar studies in ones own ecosystem.
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/transect/econiche/econiche.htm and
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/transect/transrrk.htm

COL award

The Commonwealth of Learning selects the racerocks.com website for its Excellence in Education Award 2004.

Distance Ed Distance Education with racerocks.com

FOOTNOTE:

Lester Pearson College is a non-profit educational institution, one of the United World Colleges, with students on scholarship from over 80 countries. It operates and manages the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve and Marine Protected Area for the Environment Ministry of BC Parks as a community outreach program. Students involved in our science and activities programs get the opportunity to participate in contributing to a website devoted to providing an educational resource for this unique environment.

racerocks.com was conceived as a project to utilize technology and the internet to bring to the educational community access to a sensitive ecosystem with an interactive website. Our goal was to do that without being part of a negative human environmental impact. Through the generous support of sponsors and partners, in March 2000, the website http://www.racerocks.com/went live on the internet. Since that time multiple fixed and remote control cameras have sent live images continuously and the students and faculty of Lester Pearson College, as part of the ongoing stewardship of this area, have produced a large resource of supportive background materials and archived video. From the outset we have maintained a commitment to present a non-commercialized educational site.

Garry Fletcher
Educational Director, racerocks.com
G.Fletcher, Marine Education Consulting
Victoria, B.C. Canada

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