Collaborative Projects  

The list below contains specific data collection projects that teachers and their students may become a part of. Some of these projects may have been completed, but they can be used as a model for your own projects.

• Are You Getting Enough Sleep? -- This project was designed to allow adolescents keep track of their sleep patterns. Data taken during a one week period (including one weekend) will provide information about not only how much they sleep but when they sleep the most.
• The CoNect Energy Project -- students monitor electricity use in their school, compare energy use data among schools, develop and implement a conservation plan, and try to significantly curtail electricity use and spending.
• Down the Drain -- students will share information about water usage with other students from around the country and the world. Based on data collected by their household members and their classmates, students will determine the average amount of water used by one person in a day. They will compare this to the average amount of water used per person per day in other parts of the world.
• Earthquake Data Analysis Lab -- a two-day earth science lab that stresses the authentic analysis of Internet-acquired data in a hands-on and technology-rich learning environment. The goal of this lab activity is to incorporate actual scientific processes carried out in the field of seismology with computer based graphing software.
• Eratosthenes Experiment -- This one-day project in September, 2008 allows students from all over the globe to calculate the circumference of the Earth by measuring the shadow of the sun, then using that measurement in a simple equation. Students and classes are encouraged to share their results with others by completing an experiment report form.
• Global Grocery List -- Share your local grocery prices with participating classrooms all over the world.
• Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) -- students make environmental observations near their schools and report their data via the Internet.
• Global Sun Temperature Project -- Join schools from around the world as they try to figure out how proximity to the equator affects average daily temperature and hours of sunlight.
• Global Water Sampling Project -- For the fifth year, students are teaming up around the globe to test fresh water. Join this collaborative project and compare the water quality of your local river, stream, lake or pond with other fresh water sources around the world.
• International Boiling Point Project -- students all over the world conduct the same experiment which involves boiling a pot of water and recording the boiling point, room temperature, elevation, number of people present in room and heating device.
• Journey North Tulip Garden -- students share data to investigate the relationship between geography, temperature and the arrival of spring.
• National Math Trail -- The National Math Trail is an opportunity for K-12 teachers and students to discover and share the math that exists in their own environments. Students explore their communities and create one or more math problems that relate to what they find. Teachers submit the problems to the National Math Trail site, along with photos, drawings, sound recordings, videos--whatever can be adapted to the Internet. All submissions will be posted to the site as they are submitted. They will also be indexed according to grade level and math topic and will remain on the site for access by educators, students and parents.
• Online Schoolyard Projects -- Online projects that allow students to, collaboratively or independently, conduct scientific and mathematical investigations in their schoolyards and then submit their collected data using an online form. Each piece of submitted data is then placed on the web page as a chart for the students to study and to download as an Excel spreadsheet. Student comments and communication about their experiences are encouraged. Digital pictures of captured organisms and experimental designs are also wanted for display at this web site.
• Project Starshine -- opportunity for middle school students to polish small, flat, aluminum mirrors that will be mounted on a spherical, hollow, aluminum "Starshine" satellite and carried into space aboard one of the Shuttles.
• Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head -- Students who participate in the project will measure the acidity of rainwater in their environs, and the acidity of the nearest body of water which may be a stream, river, pond, or lake.  The data obtained in these measurements will be collected, collated and finally distributed to all the participants to examine, analyze, and make hypothesis about the causes of their local pollution or lack thereof, and the findings in other parts of the world with acid rain pollution problems.
• SunpHlower Project -- How does the pH of locally collected rain water influence the development of the Sunflower? Project is designed for grades 3 - 8.
• Take a Dip -- students team up around the globe to test fresh water.
• Weather Watch -- This project is designed to pair classes located in different climatic zones who will then exchange specific weather information on a weekly basis.

If you already have a data collection project in mind, post your project to the following databases to find other classrooms with the same interests.

• Class2Class -- a clearinghouse designed to facilitate student and class participation in Internet projects, including collaborative projects, data-collecting experiments, peer tutoring, and keypal exchanges designed to enhance the mathematics in your math, science and interdisciplinary curricula.
• Epals Classroom Exchange -- join over 6.5 million students and educators around the world for discussions, projects, learning and more in the world's largest online classroom community.
• Global Schoolhouse -- search over 100 current and future projects along with over 2000 completed projects or list your own project.

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Last update: 29 October 2011