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What is DLESE?
How is DLESE pronounced?
How much does DLESE cost?
Who operates DLESE?
What is a resource?
What is a collection?
Does DLESE host the resources?
How do I find resources in DLESE?
I'm getting too many results from my search. How can
I narrow the search?
Where do DLESE resources come from?
How does DLESE ensure the quality of its resources?
How does DLESE ensure that education standards are applied
appropriately?
How can I contribute a resource to DLESE?
Does a "Resource of Interest" on the DLESE homepage mean it has been reviewed?
Currently, what is the number of reviewed resources?
Where is the list of review criteria for reviewed collections?
I'd like to send an announcement to be posted in the DLESE
News and opportunities area.
What is the National Science Digital Library (NSDL)? What
is the relationship between it and DLESE?
There is a problem on the DLESE web site that I'd like to
report.
DLESE is the Digital Library for Earth System Education, a geoscience community resource that supports teaching and learning about the Earth system. It is funded by the National Science Foundation and is being built by a community of educators, students, and scientists to support Earth system education at all levels and in both formal and informal settings. DLESE provides:
Resources in DLESE include lesson plans, scientific data, visualizations, interactive computer models, and virtual field trips - in short, any web-accessible teaching or learning material. Many of these resources are organized in collections, or groups of related resources that reflect a coherent, focused theme. In many ways, digital collections are analogous to collections in traditional bricks-and-mortar libraries.
All resources in DLESE have been contributed by community members, are relevant to Earth System education, and are checked periodically for technical stability. The Reviewed Collection includes those DLESE resources that have been more closely examined and are considered exemplary.
DLESE serves as the geoscience node in the National Science Digital Library (NSDL). NSDL serves the broader communities of science, technology, engineering, and math education.
Duh-lees-ee. In keeping with the library's community focus, this question was definitively resolved at the first DLESE Annual Meeting in Bozeman, MT in 2000. There, the K-12 working group noted that since the final "E" at the end of the acronym stands for Education—a "pronounced part of the effort"—it should also be pronounced in articulation of the acronym. The community appreciated both the pun and the sentiment, and it has been "duh-lees-ee" ever since.
Use of DLESE is free - DLESE is entirely funded by the National Science Foundation. The majority of the resources that you can discover in DLESE are free as well.
DLESE is operated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Computational and Information Systems Laboratory and the NCAR Library on behalf of the education community.
Resources in DLESE include lesson plans, scientific data, visualizations, interactive computer models, and virtual field trips - in short, any web-accessible teaching or learning material.
Collections are groups of related resources that reflect a coherent, focused theme. In many ways, digital collections are analogous to collections in traditional bricks-and-mortar libraries.
DLESE doesn't host resources. The value of DLESE is in its careful descriptions of its resources and services. These descriptions take the form of metadata records and are analogous to the cards in the card catalog of bricks-and-mortar libraries. The centerpiece of each metadata record is a description of the resource written by an Earth system educator, scientist, or librarian. The metadata also includes grade-level, technical requirements, creator, publisher, and for a subset of the collection, alignment to educational standards.
A search in DLESE is analogous to a search in a card catalog. In response to your search, you get a set of metadata records describing materials that match the criteria of your search. These records help you quickly decide which resource best meets your needs. Then you can follow a link to the resource. Although DLESE doesn't host any resources, we do check to be sure that the resources described in metadata records remain accessible and functional.
A resource of interest is not necessarily a reviewed item. It is usually a resource that has recently been accessioned into the library, or one that reflects a recent Earth event and is selected for its potential for use as a springboard for teaching.
The distribution of resources in the Reviewed collection can be obtained using a search for Educational resources. In the search box on the DLESE homepage (located on the Earth image), click on the blue Collections button, then select DLESE Reviewed Collection (DRC), and then click on the Search button. A search with no other qualifying terms will result in a list of all items in all reviewed collections. Selecting a specific reviewed collection only (e.g. Community Annotated Collection, DWEL or NASA ESE) will reveal the number of items in that discrete collection. Browse items in the DLESE Reviewed Collection .
DLESE recognizes multiple pathways to the Reviewed collection. Each collection must meet or address 7 basic criteria. They are:
a. scientifically accurate
b. important or significant
c. pedagogically effective: has student learning occurred?
d. well-documented
e. easy to use for students and faculty
f. ability to inspire or motivate students
g. robust/sustainable as a digital resource
All reviewed collections must articulate a review process that explicitly addresses each of these points at a minimum. Some systems may add additional criteria, and the mechanism for implementing the review process varies with each collection.
There are three ways you can find great educational materials in DLESE.
The easiest way is to use the blue Grade level, Resource type, Collections, and Standards drop-down menus to constrain your keyword search. You can also check the Search tips page. If you still cannot find suitable resources, please tell us what you are looking for.
While many resources are created by universities or large institutions interested in Earth System education, such as NASA, others are created by experienced educators who wish to share their work with colleagues. Resources are contributed to the library by their creators, by community members who have found them useful in their teaching, or as part of a thematic collection. If you have a favorite Earth system science educational resource, please suggest it to us.
All resources in DLESE have been contributed by community members, are relevant to Earth System education, and are checked periodically for technical stability. The Reviewed Collection includes those DLESE resources that have been more closely examined and are considered exemplary.
For more details about the quality of resources in DLESE, please see the Collection Policy.
Education standards are assigned by the people who catalog the resources. These includes teachers who have used them in their classes, collection builders, resource creators, and Earth scientists. DLESE also reviews the standards assigned to resources; any questions are discussed with the resource cataloger.
DLESE encourages library users, community members and resource developers to contribute to the library. This not only grows and strengthens the library, it encourages the reuse and sharing of materials. It takes about five minutes to suggest a resource you think should be in DLESE. This will place it on a list for possible future inclusion in the DLESE Community Collection (DCC), one of the many collections in DLESE.
The DLESE community includes anyone interested in Earth system science. In practice, DLESE consists primarily of K-12 teachers, college professors, and curriculum and material developers from numerous national organizations. DLESE is a freely available service that encourages open and diverse participation. DLESE does not require registration or a login.
You can post an item at any time and generally it will appear within 48 hours. We encourage you to use the DLESE posting tool for announcing news, events, and opportunities of interest to DLESE and Earth system science education communities. Please feel free to recommend this tool to other Earth system science-related email groups.
Send a message to support@dlese.org.
Last modified October 25, 2007
