Alex, Brett, Tom and Justin work on their JASON assignments before boarding the plane to New Orleans.

ABOUT THE JASON PROJECT
The JASON Project provides multimedia science curriculum and professional development to students and teachers across the country and around the world. Named for the mythological Greek adventurer, JASON offers students and teachers a distinctive opportunity to learn through exploration, discovery and connections with leading scientists. JASON was founded in 1989 by explorer and oceanographer Dr. Robert Ballard, best known for his discovery of RMS Titanic, and became an independent subsidiary of National Geographic Society in 2005.

The JASON Project Launches New Curriculum Line

To Join the Adventure, Go to www.jason.org and Register – It’s Free!

Operation: Monster Storms
Takes Classrooms to Extreme Weather Events

 JASON Students waiting for their room assignments at LUMCON.
UGES Students visit the LUMCON Library. The room is full of resources that may be shared with marine researchers across the country. Ashburn, VA -- Operation: Monster Storms, the new science curriculum from The JASON Project, is now transporting students to the center of Earth’s most extreme weather events. From flying into a hurricane’s eye to chasing twisters in Tornado Alley, Operation: Monster Storms teaches students how powerful storms form and how advanced technology is used to better understand and forecast weather.

The five- to nine-week core science unit for weather is designed for 5th through 8th grade classrooms, with the flexibility for teachers to adapt to higher or lower grades. It covers key middle school National Science Education Standards for Physical Science, Earth Science and Science and Personal Social Perspectives and can be readily aligned to all state standards.
Operation: Monster Storms, the first product in JASON’s new curriculum line, has been in development and field-testing since 2005 and was developed in partnership with NOAA, NASA and the National Geographic Society, JASON’s parent organization.

Free online for the 2007-08 school year – and available in print with videos in DVD / VHS formats – Operation: Monster Storms connects classrooms with cutting-edge research by some of the world’s leading scientists as they explore the mechanics of weather to improve forecasting and help communities avoid their destructive potential. Working alongside researchers like a National Geographic tornado-chaser or a NOAA hurricane-hunter, students in the classroom and an online global community are challenged to apply their knowledge to its compelling, real-world scenarios.
 UGES Students visit the LUMCON Library. The room is full of resources that may be shared with marine researchers across the country.
“Our goal was to create a product that can truly change the way science is taught and learned,” said JASON President Caleb M. Schutz, who led the redesign of JASON’s curriculum and delivery systems and is well-known as the founder of MarcoPolo: Internet Content for the Classroom. “We focused on creating a standalone curriculum unit aimed at increasing student proficiency, giving teachers the tools and resources to make it relevant to their needs, and expanding our online multimedia so every student experiences the thrill of exploration and discovery.”
“The power of great explorers and great events to fire students’ imaginations was the driving force behind JASON’s founding in 1989. Today, with the release of our new curriculum, every student has opportunities to join real expeditions. We think these experiences will help them internalize the desire to learn, overcome obstacles to improving their proficiency, and inspire them to make science part of their future,” said Schutz.
JASON Students are getting directions for their next task. It's been a long day but everyone is still hanging in there.

JASON’s new curriculum structure immerses students in actual science missions framed through five core elements:

  • Meet the Researchers: Students are introduced to the prominent scientists who act as Mission hosts, allowing them to get to know these diverse role models who describe their work, their challenges and their inspiration for pursuing science.
  • Invitation to Join the Mission Team: Host researchers and JASON Student Argonauts give students their Mission Objectives, tell them what science knowledge is required and why it is important, and invite them to join the team.

  • Mission Briefing: Students receive the background science concepts they need to accomplish the Mission.
  • Mission Labs: Three to five hands-on experiments per mission illustrate the core science and require students to apply knowledge and critical thinking skills. These labs are structured within a guided-inquiry framework.
  • Field Assignments: Students complete the Mission in a cumulative, inquiry-based assignment where they synthesize and evaluate a new, real-world scenario. They prepare by conducting a warm-up activity that mimics the researchers’ fieldwork and then create an experimental design, make and record observations and interpret real data sets.

 Mert, the LUMCON Educator, addresses the UGES students as they are introduced to the research they will conduct relating to wetlands and hurricanes.
  • Assessment Builder – Pre/post assessments measure student performance using JASON’s library of test questions, or schools and districts can use the tool to create their own tests. Assessments can be assigned and completed online.
  • Alignments – This database is pre-populated with National Science Education Standards and the standards of states such as California, Texas, Florida, New York, Ohio, Illinois, Virginia, Missouri and Kansas. It can readily import standards from other states for local alignment.
  • Reports – Teachers and administrators will access detailed usage, survey, assessment and progress reports to help them manage JASON in their schools and districts.

“While the curriculum is the key ingredient, the new online technology platform is the ship that students and teachers will sail to take their journey,” said Schutz. The new JASON Mission Center, like NASA’s Mission Control in Houston, is the hub for exploration and discovery. Here, students and educators can access:

  • Online Curricula – The complete Student Edition is available online as Web pages. Links, videos, and images come alive with the click of a mouse, and additional resources such as student journals are included.
  • Digital Labs – Interactive computer-based simulations use actual data to help students understand complex science concepts and relationships in a gaming environment.
  • Interactive Events – Students will work alongside top scientists, team up from remote locations on multi-player digital labs and collaborate on assignments and projects.
  • Digital Library – Search for resources by subject, state standard, or other criteria.
  • Lesson Builder – Teachers can use pre-designed lesson plans or create their own. Lessons can be assigned and completed online so teachers can monitor student progress, receive alerts when work is “handed in,” and provide immediate feedback to students.

Water testing groups gather water samples to test temperature,

disolved oxygen and pH.

Claire and Julie look through a refractometer to detemine

salinity or how much salt is in the water.

Alex, Kendall and Jacquee do the chemistry to test

pH levels on the pond water.

Murt, the LUMCON educator, shows the students Spartina alterniflora

(smooth cordgrass). It tastes salty.
Cassy shakes her solution of pond water

during titration testing.

Tom, Justin and Brett test water

for clarity.

Students working in the

plankton lab.

This is the microscope view of a plankton known

as diaton.

Mrs. Marshall, Mackenzie and Katie look at the

squid from a dissection lab.

Girls studying for their

squid dissections.

Jacquee, Mrs. Anderson and Kendall

prepare their squid.

To join the expedition, go to www.jason.org and register – it’s free!