Daniel and Sebastian enter stoop the room. Their next subject on the time table is "natural science". In science teaching of the Velbert comprehensive school the topic "water" is part of the school curriculum. The natural water cycle and the cleaning of waste water should be explained. This term however everything is different. The two pupils of the class 8c unperturbedly pave their way to the science classroom. They carry their valuable goods to the room, accompanied by the astonished glances of students from other classes and by remarks like "Oh, may I get one as well?". On the cart there are numerous laptops recently used in the subject of natural science.

Jenny types http://www.gesamtschulevelbert.de/ and clicks the link to "project water". The laptops are meanwhile spread among the pupils and the various groups sovereignly begin their work. In the beginning the student groups informed themselves about general properties of water like "cohesion" and "adhesion" in the internet and had also a view on an animated water cycle. The internet access is no problem for the pupils. One click on the browser is sufficient, the rest is done by a modern radio contact in co-operation with a communication server.


Today however the main interest of the pupils at the beginning of the lesson is the question: Did "our scientists" put something new on the net? They refer to the scientists of the Max-Planck-Institute Mainz [red.: many other institutes are involved, too], who co-operate with us as part of the project "ESPERE" (Environmental Science Published for Everybody Round the Earth) The idea is: Experts inform about the current state of research and create a homepage - in our case for the topic "water". Students and teachers in the schools contribute to the development. Citizens inform themselves and spread the information.

An excellent idea. The pupils learn about new aspects of the respective topic. But first of all this kind of teaching has important advantages compared to school books. The informations include most topical scientific research and the multimedia illustrations make the contents more interesting and understandable for the pupils. If something should remain unclear nevertheless or if somebody would like to know more about an interesting detail, the possibility is given, to come into touch with the scientists. For this purpose a virtual classroom is installed. This way questions can be asked and topics can be discussed.

A slightly different way of science teaching - but: it's fascinating! That's what all students agree upon. "Cool!" says one girl leaving the classroom. Daniel and Sebastian are ready for the transport. Stoop again they leave the room.

Translated from the German online-article of Netdays-live (october 2001)
E. Uherek