2005 Computerworld Honors Program

	Hands on Land The Wilderness Technology Alliance Bellevue, Washington USA Year: 2002 Status: Finalist Category: Environment, Energy & Agriculture Nominating Company: Macromedia
	The environmental education resources of all of Americaís federal lands and historic monuments are made available to public education, benefiting the environment and student character.
	BACKGROUND The Wilderness Technology Alliance (WTA) is a 501C(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to develop and implement programs that use technology in environmental education. The Alliance typically partners with state education agencies, school districts, and other formal or informal teaching institutions to implement its programs. The WTA has been running successful environmental education programs since 1995. These programs have trained thousands of students and teachers and have earned numerous state and national awards for education excellence and the innovative use of technology in environmental education. SPECIFIC PROJECT CONTEXT In May of 2001, the Partners for Resource Education (PRE) entered into a cooperative agreement with the Wilderness Technology Alliance to advance their environmental education program called “Hands on the Land” (HOL). PRE consists of representatives from the Washington DC headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Forest Service and National Environmental Education and Training Foundation (NEETF). The mission of “Hands on the Land” is to provide a national network of field classrooms to enhance Kindergarten through high school student-learning through the environment. The WTA was awarded this cooperative agreement due to its strong partnerships with education agencies and technology firms, and its unique methodology that includes web technology, service learning, and school-based environmental education multimedia enterprises. It includes key partnerships with the PRE, Macromedia, and Washington’s State Education Agency (OSPI). GOALS The “Hands on the Land” initiative promotes easy collaboration between teachers, students, and land managers, to create and expand environmental education and service learning opportunities for all of K-12 education. The specific goals for the “Hands on the Land” project are to: ? Provide a structure for brief web-based tours on all of America’s federal lands and federal historic monuments. ? Provide a structure for federal lands to catalog and index their environmental education curriculums, physical & staff resources, and contact information for easy searching by teachers. ? Provide a system for land managers to catalog environmental education service learning projects that benefit the environment while training students. ? Provide a structure for state education agencies, schools, and federal land management agencies to match environmental education curriculums, activities, and service learning projects to state and national education standards. ? Allow teachers to search for environmental education curriculums, activities, and service learning projects by educational standards, geographic locations, and topics. ? Provide a system for educators to initiate requests for environmental education service learning opportunities on nearby federal lands. ? Provide information for land managers about adjacent schools who wish to collaborate with land managers including names, contacts, and resources available at public schools. ? Provide an environmental education service learning project creation and implementation methodology that schools and federal land mangers can follow. This requires that teachers and land managers capture data as they create their projects allowing others to learn from their experiences and easily create new projects. ? Require that students develop multimedia web sites to document and pass what they learned in their service-learning projects to other students. These web sites must be matched to essential learning requirements. ? Provide a location to catalog and post student-produced environmental education web sites. ? Develop a system that makes environmental education relationships between schools and land managers permanent once established. ? Develop online forms for gathering teacher, student, and land manager feedback as well as statistics to assess student learning. ? Allow the resources and knowledge of the WTA to serve as a catalyst to train teachers in becoming environmental educators who continually engage students in field-based service learning projects. METHODS The method presented by the WTA is one that produces what it consumes, allowing the project to self-replicate and grow. The model harnesses a young person’s ability to learn technology faster than adults and applies it to producing both teachers and money…the ingredients for self-replication in a public school setting. Such a system is essential for the project to eventually reach all of America’s federal lands and all of K-12 education. For the “Hands on the Land” project, the WTA created model for school-based student-run multimedia technology enterprises called “WildTech Student Enterprises” (see www.wildtech.org). These enterprises are supported by a high school accredited project-based multimedia curriculum developed by Macromedia in partnership with the WTA and Washington’s state education agency (OSPI). This curriculum provides basic multimedia skills, then engages students in environmental education service learning projects, followed by real-life projects where students design environmental education web sites that pass on their knowledge. Successful students return in their senior year to actually teach the class. Adult teachers take on the primary role of facilitators who create and support self-sustaining student-run technology enterprises. The adult teachers become actively engaged in acquiring additional web development projects, all while retaining a permanent web development relationship with their federal land. These enterprises are proliferated in schools as high technology “franchises”. This establishes an enormous multimedia development company that knows no borders. Detailed operating procedures, inter and intra enterprise on-line task management systems, methods of student assessment, and more are contained at the franchise web site (www.wildtech.org). The project is also supported by an advanced web site located at (www.handsontheland.org). This web site is designed to support the multimedia curriculum, just as the multimedia curriculum is designed to support the web site. It allows dynamic data input and data extraction from multiple classes of users including federal land managers, interpretive staff, state education agencies, teachers, and students. This creates it an “organic feel”, allowing it to self-generate and keep up with the massive amount of data being created by its use. It promotes easy collaboration by teachers, students, and land managers to create and expand environmental education and service learning opportunities for all of K-12 education. It provides a structure for teachers and federal land managers to enter and index their environmental education resources and needs. This structure then connects these environmental education resources to all of public education. Included on the web site are service learning projects on federal lands that students can perform. They involve new construction, ecosystem monitoring, and rehabilitation / restoration. Students enrolled in the multimedia course use the HOL web site to collaborate with federal land managers in order to create environmental education service-learning programs. The web sites students later produce are targeted to train other students and matched to national environmental education learning standards. They are then indexed by subject, learning requirements, and geographic location. Part of the multimedia work documents the process that schools and land mangers undergo in order to design and complete their projects. This creates a roadmap for future students, teachers, and land managers who are creating similar projects. This too supports the self-accelerating nature of "Hands on the Land." Federal lands support the project as it allows them to economically achieve their mandated educational objectives, all while addressing their backlog of work through student service learning projects. Educators support it as it addresses environmental education learning requirements for students, a much-needed multimedia technology curriculum, and inexpensive (often free) software and training…all of this in a project-based format. Students thrive on it, for they are engaged in real and relevant work, where they see and understand its benefits and can share it with others through web technology. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES Creating a solution for such a vast project began with assembling and cultivating a team with diverse and extensive resources. Yet each team member had to provide these resources at no cost as the budget did not allow it. Roles and responsibilities were identified early on for the partners. As listed in the cooperative agreement, these parties and responsibilities are: Partners in Resource Education (PRE) – The consortium of 5 federal land agencies made up of Washington DC representatives from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the National Park Service (NPS), the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and Forest Service (USFS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). PRE program and activity coordination is provided by the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation (NEETF). ? Assign a representative from PRE to serve as a member of the Steering Committee ? Assign personnel from each site to serve on the multimedia development team responsible for the development of web-based educational materials. This will involve providing information on the specific issues relevant to the site, and conducting a technical review of the educational materials developed by the teams. ? Provide WTA with the following content for coding and up-linking to a central and/or satellite HOL site: description of HOL program (national and local); description of how to become an HOL partner (nationally and locally); maps showing the locations of HOL field sites with hot links to field web pages (maps should be designed to allow for program growth); information on teaching resources and opportunities available on a national and local basis; materials to support the development of virtual tours and profiles of HOL sites; materials to support the development of interactive programs addressing high priority resource topics; correlations between content and national and local standards of learning; information on environmental literacy research findings. ? Review materials for both the central and satellite web sites to ensure technical accuracy. Wilderness Technology Alliance – A non-profit with 16 years of management experience in running a highly successful technology enterprise. ? Assign a representative to serve as a member of the Steering Committee. ? Develop a national “enterprise curriculum” that supports teachers and students in creating and managing student-run multimedia develop enterprises that generate their own resources. ? Hire and oversee a Web Master who will serve as project coordinator, and facilitate communication between the classrooms and PRE sites. ? Provide project implementation, management and supervision, based on the Implementation Strategy developed by the WTA and approved by the Steering Committee. ? Submit quarterly status reports to PRE, including tasks accomplished, problems encountered, actions to resolve them, and a financial statement that demonstrates expenditures to date. Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) ? Sign and administer a cooperative agreement with WTA. Washington State Education Agency (OSPI) ? Assign a curriculum specialist to serve on the steering committee, ? Work in partnership with Macromedia to produce a national curriculum in multimedia that supports multimedia service-learning where students produce environmental education web sites for federal lands. ? Assure correlation to state and national education standards to web-based environmental education projects produced by students ? Provide technical assistance and quality control for educational materials developed by the multimedia teams and corresponding learning assessments. Macromedia Development Corporation ? Assign a representative to serve on the steering committee ? Provide technical hardware and software advice and support. ? Work in partnership with OSPI to produce a national curriculum in multimedia that supports multimedia service-learning where students produce environmental education web sites for federal lands. ? Support summer teacher training institutes ? Once pilot tested, proliferate the HOL program and associated multimedia curriculum through existing and with marketing channels. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ? Assign a representative to the steering committee. ? Amend the current Interagency Agreement with NRCS to add funding for this cooperative agreement. Given the number of project partners and vast array of resources, the project stays on track through monthly teleconferences with the HOL steering committee and an Internet based task management system. This committee consists of the environmental education managers at the Washington DC headquarters of the above named agencies, and representatives from Macromedia, OSPI, and the WTA. The committee will continue to meet until all federal lands and public schools are actively involved in the Hands on the Land program. ACHIEVEMENTS The project completed its beta test in the 2000/2001. 64 students and 30 teachers from sixteen school districts collaborated with federal lands to re-vegetate damaged meadows and to pull invasive plant species during two summers in the back country. They then produced a large web site designed to train students in backpacking skills. This web site is now used by the 2001/2002 pilot schools to train their students for backcountry field work in the summer of 2002. There are currently 28 schools that have implemented this curriculum. Many have begun collaboration with federal lands and are researching their environmental education service learning projects. Some of the environmental education service learning projects are listed below. By June of 2002, each of these student-led projects will have associated multimedia development completed and housed in the HOL web site. There are now 61 schools wishing to join the project. This curriculum is now the state standard for multimedia education in Washington State. Following the pilot period (ends June 30th, 2002), this curriculum and HOL web site will be advertised to schools across America through the marketing engines of Macromedia and five federal agencies. It will become the primary vehicle for combining the environmental education resources of America’s federal lands and public education system to benefit students and our environment. From the success of this project, program partners will be presented the “Golden Apple Award”, one of Washington State’s highest awards for education excellence. In addition, program founder Lou August was presented the “John Stanford Education Hero Award” in Washington DC by former Secretary of Education Richard Riley. SOME OF THE PROJECTS STUDENT TEAMS ARE CURRENTLY WORKING ON: 1) Hands on the Land Glossary ? Component: Text, Image and Animated Definitions ? Type: HTML, animated GIF rollovers, and Flash Animations ? Development Parameters: 400 width x 300 height. Target Data Rate = 28.8 kb/s. Photographs compressed as JPEG (6 or medium). Develop for 3.x browsers. Develop for 3.x browsers. Use headings from the glossary.css instead of modifying fonts and sizes. ? Target Audience: 5th grade and up ? Contact: Dave Zelenka (zelenka@compuserve.com) ? Details: Contact other Hands on the Land Classrooms and develop a collection of words that need to be defined. Use animated GIFs, diagrams and Flash Animations where necessary. Be sure to manage your time well: define as many words as possible throughout the school year, but don't overload yourself, make each a gem. 2) Central Savannah RC&D ? Component: Gopher Tortoise a Keystone in Longleaf Pine Forests ? Type: HTML and Flash Animation ? Development Parameters: 534 width x 400 height. Target Data Rate = 28.8 kb/s. Photographs compressed as JPEG (6 or medium). Develop for 3.x browsers. ? Target Audience: 7th grade and up ? Contact: Greg Kist (greg.kist@gaaugusta2.fsc.usda.gov). He may refer you to the MEEC representative. ? Details: Research and study the gopher tortoise of the southern longleaf pine forests. Develop an educational tour on the tortoise. Use HTML, animated GIFs and images. Use M. Flash to create an introduction on the MEEC Center and its role with the tortoise. Focus on Georgia. Finally use M. Coursebuilder to create a quiz for students. 3) Big Thicket NP ? Component: Big Thicket: Ecological Crossroad of America ? Type: HTML and Flash Animation ? Development Parameters: 534 width x 400 height. Target Data Rate = 28.8 kb/s. Photographs compressed as JPEG (6 or medium). Develop for 3.x browsers. ? Target Audience: 5th grade and up ? Contact: Leslie Dubey (leslie_dubey@nps.gov) ? Details: 4) Panhandle RC&D ? Component: Tree Identification Web Handbook; & Urban Tree Planting motivational Flash component ? Type: HTML and Flash Animation ? Development Parameters: 534 width x 400 height. Target Data Rate = 28.8 kb/s. Photographs compressed as JPEG (6 or medium). Develop for 3.x browsers. Photographs will be no greater than 400 width x 300 height. Full size images will be available with links. ? Target Audience: 5th grade and up ? Contact: Ron Moore (ron.moore@ne.usda.gov) ? Details: Study the urban landscape of Scottsbluff, Gering and Morrill, Nebraska. Find out which tress live in those cities. Create a web component that describes each of the trees. For each tree include: 1) full tree (photo), leaves or needles (photo), bark (photo), common names (text), scientific names (text), descriptions (text). Classify trees into lists: a) by leaf shape, b) by family and c) by names (common and scientific, alphabetic). Connect with Panhandle students for photographs and descriptions. Create a M. Flash introduction that tells the story of why trees are important to urban landscapes. Tell it in Indian legend style. Compel the user to plant trees in their town. 5) Uinta National Forest ? Component: Why Monitor Neo-tropical Birds, Pollinators and Watersheds of Diamond Fork? ? Type: HTML and Flash Animation ? Development Parameters: 534 width x 400 height. Target Data Rate = 28.8 kb/s. Photographs compressed as JPEG (6 or medium). Develop for 3.x browsers. Photographs will be no greater than 400 width and no greater than 400 height. Full size images May be available with direct links to the JPEG. ? Target Audience: 5th grade and up ? Contact: Sarah Flinders (sflinders@fs.fed.us) ? Details: Develop an interactive study on why scientists monitor a) pollinators, b) neo-tropical birds and c) watersheds. Focus on Uinta's species. Include a Coursebuilder quiz for students and a section where Uinta-area classrooms can post their data summaries. Finally, create a M. Flash introduction. Connect with Uinta-area classrooms for additional photographs and data summaries. 6) Red Rock Canyon NCA ? Component: Species, Features, and Relationships of Red Rock Canyon; & Desert Tortoise Flash introduction Type: HTML and Flash Animation ? Development Parameters: 534 width x 400 height. Target Data Rate = 28.8 kb/s. Photographs compressed as JPEG (6 or medium). Develop for 3.x browsers. Photographs will be no greater than 400 width or no greater than 400 height. Full size images may be available with links. ? Target Audience: 5th grade and up ? Contact: Kathy August (Kathy_August@nv.blm.gov) ? Details: Develop a database that includes: 1) plants, 2) animals, 3) geological features, 4) cultural artifacts and 5) ecological connections. Connect with Las Vegas classrooms for photographs and descriptions of species and features. Finally, research the desert tortoise and create an M. Flash animation on its role in the desert ecological community. 7) Hanford Reach NM ? Component: Hanford Reach Mammals and Tribal Mammal Stories ? Type: HTML and Flash Animation ? Development Parameters: 534 width x 400 height. Target Data Rate = 28.8 kb/s. Photographs compressed as JPEG (6 or medium). Develop for 3.x browsers. Photographs will be no greater than 400 width or no greater than 400 height. ? Target Audience: 3rd grade and up ? Contact: Paula Call (Paula_Call@r1.fws.gov) ? Details: Create a comprehensive database on the animals of the monument. Include: 1) common names, 2) scientific name, 3) family, 4) habitat found, 5) description, and 6) life patterns. Also create M. Flash animations on those mammals associated with a tribal myth. Print the words, animate it and include voice over. Do as many as time allows. Finally, make one mammal legend of your own. 8) Wolftree ? Component: Cascade Streamwatch: How to Monitor Streams. ? Type: M. Coursebuilder, HTML and M. Flash Animation ? Development Parameters: 534 width. Target Data Rate = 28.8 kb/s. Photographs compressed as JPEG (6 or medium). Photographs will be no greater than 400 width and no greater than 400 height. Develop for 3.x browsers. ? Target Audience: 7th grade ? Contact: Jennifer Carlson (jcarlson@beoutside.org) ? Details: Develop a "Question and Answer Tree" using M. Coursebuilder. Use questions from the Wolftree monitoring handbook (.pdf files found at www.beoutside.org). You may also use the photographs created by college students at web.pdx.edu/~lshowell/. When complete create a interactive M. Flash component on the Wildwood Recreational Area which describes Wolftree's educational role. 9) Olympic National Park ? Component: UV, Ozone and Amphibians ? Type: HTML and Flash Animation ? Development Parameters: 534 width. Target Data Rate = 28.8 kb/s. Photographs compressed as JPEG (6 or medium). Photographs will be no greater than 400 width and no greater than 400 height. Develop for 3.x browsers. ? Target Audience: 9th grade ? Contact: Kathy Steichen (kathy_steichen@nps.gov) ? Details: Research and Study UV and amphibians. Create a UV radiation site that illustrates the effects and types of ultraviolet radiation. Focus on its effects on high country lake amphibians at Olympic. Borrow a park UV monitor for your school and make weekly comparisons between open sky and shade. Post data and summarize results. Create a Flash animation on UV and you. Show how swift action on limiting CFCs into the atmosphere may have helped limit future UV damage. 10) Topic of the Year and Site Introduction ? Component: Topic of the Year Invasive Species pages and Hands on the Land Myth ? Type: HTML and M. Flash Animation ? Development Parameters: 534 width. Photographs compressed as JPEG (6 or medium). Develop for 3.x browsers. ? Target Audience: 7th grade ? Contact: Dave Zelenka (zelenka@compuserve.com) ? Details: Project will focus on invasive species and those specific to each of the Hands on the Land site. Students will research a focus invasive from each of the HotL site and determine the best method to create an interesting project on these invasives. Be sure to make logical site to site comparisons and provide a section illustrating the pros and cons for the various methods of dealing with invasive species. ? In addition to the invasive species project. Students will create a M. Flash animation called "Hand Shadow." Focus on the concept of stewardship. Use voice over. Create an alternative HTML/Javascript version without audio.
	The Hands on the Land project provides many benefits to schools, teachers, students, federal land managers, and ecosystems. It also defines a new collaborative approach for creating advanced technology curricula between the high technology industry and education. Schools benefit by implementing this project-based curriculum in multimedia technology that uses state-of-the-art software from Macromedia. This curriculum is matched to a wide variety of mandated technology, environment, and communications learning requirements due to its project-based methodology. School systems are able to establish career pathways in multimedia technology using this multi-semester curriculum. In addition to web development for federal lands, this class requires additional real-world web development projects for students to work on. Thus it changes the role of schools in their community. In the rapidly changing world of technology, fast learning youth make schools a potential community technology resource. Project based curricula that empower students to do such work can revitalize schools and entire communities. This is very important for rural and low-income communities with few affordable technology solutions or jobs for graduating youth. It provides an engaging methodology to teach students about environmental education topics and to create linkages with adjacent federal lands. In “Hands on the Land”, students are active learners, teachers, and even curriculum writers. This enables schools to be less dependent on technically literate teachers (something in great demand by both education and industry) and allows schools to keep up with changes precipitated by technology. Students become peer teachers. Advanced students become classroom teachers who are more technology literate than their certified adult teachers. The skills, confidence, and experience that student’s gain are something that was not previously possible in secondary education. Though students are generally excited to take on these new roles, most often it is the adult teachers and administrators who must be convinced. Long time teachers often perceive stratified roles between teachers and students; not the dynamic interchange that Hands on the Land must have. Administrators too are often resistant. The solution often comes down to a willingness to give up control to motivated and engaged students. Clearly these are new challenges that are inevitable in the highly accelerated world of “Hands on the Land”. Even land mangers vastly benefit. Their perception of students transforms from one of “land users” to one of “management resources”. Land managers constantly struggle with shrinking budgets and backlogs of service, projects, and maintenance. Students are a creative and energetic force often waiting for something meaningful to do. “Hands on the Land” provides the vehicle to change this perception, to tap into this unused capacity, and to rehabilitate America’s federal lands.
	“Hands on the Land” is possible due to the integration of advanced web technology and a well designed multimedia curriculum. Both feed on the outputs of their implementation. Land managers are able to enter and share their resources with educators across the country due the web technology that “Hands on the Land” employs. Educators are able to collaborate due the web-based tools provided by the “Hands on the Land” web site. Students are able to provide environmental education content to the Hands on the Land web site due to the project-based multimedia curriculum. This curriculum becomes perpetual due to program graduates who later become teacher’s aids or classroom instructors. New paradigms precipitated by technology are the primary reason that “Hands on the Land” is possible. New paradigms are the primary reason that student-based technology enterprises can multiply and thrive. Today we live in a world where technology is increasing the rate of change in many fields. When technical knowledge becomes rapidly obsolete, professional competence is determined less by what one knows, and more by how quickly one can learn. High school students can learn technology skills faster than most adults. Thus they can play a crucial role in an information-based economy. Regardless if it is multimedia, computer repair, networking, or any other information technology field, a well designed program that takes advantage of a young person’s vast capacity to learn will succeed. This new paradigm is mapped into a new technology model. An entity can accelerate when it produces more of the same thing that it consumes. In education, what is consumed are trained teachers and money. To keep up in an accelerating world precipitated by technology, schools must produce both trained teachers and money. The answer is in the students themselves.
	The goals of “Hands on the Land” are very contradictory. It required the sharing and development of environmental education information from thousands of federal lands with millions of teachers and students…all with virtually no development budget. The only possible answer was applying a development model that self-accelerates. Hands on the Land is original for many reasons: ? It created of the world’s first student-based web development company that knows no school district boundaries. ? Its collaborative approach in developing a state and national multimedia curriculum. ? That five federal agencies entered into a cooperative agreement based primarily on professional environmental education web development by high school students. ? The application of this near infinite multimedia development force to a near infinite project. ? The application of this near infinite labor force to the near-infinite backlog of environmental service on federal lands. ? The use of a “franchise model” for proliferation of student-based technology enterprises in high schools. This model has resolved the legal issues, created the forms, and developed the policies that make replication and expansion easy for students, teachers, and school districts. However maybe most original, it created a consortium of very different partners with very different objectives. They were all willing to give the very most of their organizations for a project that gave them no revenue yet meant so much for our nation’s youth and public lands. One of these agencies was the originator of the project. The project began in 1989 as the "The Mount Rainier Technology Camp", a company-funded project of Trinity Technology, Inc. Trinity was a primary computer supplier to Washington State Schools. Being such, Trinity's founder recognized the effects of the digital divide early on. Thus Trinity devoted a portion of its profits to projects that benefited children. Over the course of years, the Mount Rainier Technology Camp was built through alliances with Metropolitan Parks District of Tacoma, the National Park Service, the US Department of Energy, Macromedia, Microsoft, and Washington State Schools. In 1995, the first program year, students took part in backpacking expeditions in Mount Rainier National Park. They then produced sections of the official Mount Rainier National Park CD-ROM, now sold at National Park gift stores. News of the program's success quickly traveled to Olympic National Park, where in 1996, students took part in a backpacking expedition and produced sections of the Olympic National Park official CD-ROM. After completing the program, students in both years were given free computers and software. After a large pilot project in 1998, Mount Rainier National Park selected the program as a major part of its Centennial Celebration. In 1999, 100 At-Risk students from 33 schools took part in the program. Honorary leaders opened each of 11 expeditions and spent a day on the mountain with the students. These leaders included Dr. Terry Bergeson (State Superintendent of Public Instruction), Mark Wolfram (VP - Microsoft), Paul Brainerd (Founder - Aldous), and US Senator Slade Gorton. In all, nearly $1million in technology hardware and software were provided to Washington Schools. On April 3rd, 2000, the program was inducted into the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. Out of the success of this Centennial Project was born the Wilderness Technology Alliance. Two clear functional areas were quickly identified; a statewide student-based computer hardware program, and a statewide project-based multimedia program. Both would complement each other and became integral components of "WildTech Student Enterprises." The WTA now proliferates its programs through the WildTech Franchise, were students are involved in relevant, highly motivating, project-based learning that supports their school and community.
	The project completed its beta test in the 2000/2001. Sixty four students and 30 teachers from sixteen school districts collaborated with federal lands to re-vegetate damaged meadows and to pull invasive plant species during two summers in the back country. They then produced a large web site designed to train students in backpacking skills. This web site is now used by the 2001/2002 pilot schools to train their students for backcountry field work in the summer of 2002. The project involved extensive teacher training, student preparation, student independent study courses, and student training during a two year period, both during the school year in the summer. The Hands on the Land project met or exceeded all of the goals identified above. At this point in its ramp up, planners expected that only ten schools would be participating. There are currently 28 schools involved in the project with over 60 on a waiting list. Many have begun collaborating with federal lands and are researching their environmental education service learning projects. By June of 2002, each of these student-led projects will have associated multimedia development completed and housed on the HOL web site. This curriculum is now the state standard for multimedia education in Washington State. Following the pilot period (ends June 30th, 2002), this curriculum and HOL web site will be advertised to schools across America through the marketing engines of Macromedia and five federal agencies. It will become the primary vehicle for the environmental education resources of America’s federal lands to be communicated to public education in order to benefit students and our environment. From the success of this project, program partners will be presented the “Golden Apple Award”, one of Washington State’s highest awards for education excellence. In addition, program founder Lou August was presented the “John Stanford Education Hero Award” in Washington DC by former Secretary of Education Richard Riley. Program managers at the WTA are now planning program expansion in collaboration with five federal agencies through a planned project office in Washington DC. In 2001/2002, representative from this office will: ? Create linkages with state environmental education programs, education reform initiatives (including character education), and national environmental education programs. This office gives the WTA local access to environmental education resources and staff of the PRE and their associated agencies, and a presence at the meetings of America’s federal land management agencies. ? Create collaboration with federal lands in two eastern states to catalog and index their service-learning projects, environmental curriculums, physical & staff resources, and contact information for easy searching by teachers. ? Create collaboration with state education agencies and public schools in two eastern states to catalog and index their needs, physical & staff resources, and contact information, for easy searching by land managers. ? Create at least three service learning projects involving at least 9 school districts, including the implementation of the environmental education multimedia curriculum and student web development. ? Assess the results and improve the “Hands on the Land” project for national implementation. According to Kirsti Aho, Director of Education and eLearning at Macromedia, “the Hands on the Land projects provide tremendous opportunities for teachers and students who want to build technology skills and develop a professional relationship with federal agencies”. Joanne Fevergeon, at teacher running a WildTech program writes “I think the most valuable lessons they learned were teamwork and to look outside of themselves to what others may need. I feel they will be forever changed by the experience. Thank you for the way you love kids and for your vision for potential and for their future.” Will Fry, a teacher running a WildTech program writes “From the success of these students, we are designing a brand new technology program at Chief Leschi that will lead to graduates of it to receive a Microsoft MCP in Windows NT Server. There will also be an articulating agreement with a nearby community college to allow students in this program to receive advanced standing in a computer technology two-year degree program. This technology program will be a one of a kind program for Native American schools.” Former Deputy Director of the National Park Service Maureen Finnerty writes “We congratulate you on efforts in establishing a wilderness program in partnership with the National Park Service and school districts in Washington, California and Colorado. Your efforts blend wilderness values and team building with hands-on technology training is a creative and innovative approach to educating young people” Eric Christianson, a teacher running a WildTech program writes “It was just an absolutely amazing, emotional experience, and I’m not a touchy-feely guy…I now have kids designing web pages. I have a kid, a freshman, who just made 300 bucks designing a web page for someone”.
	The task and optimism of this project as first laid out was extraordinary. No project based multimedia curriculum existed at the time, it needed to be developed. No student based technology franchise concept or procedures existed at the time, but the concept evolved. Other obstacles included: ? Finalize and test a training model and policy that trains teachers to become wilderness educators who can safely take students on field-based service learning expeditions. ? Train teachers in multimedia and environmental education service learning. ? Convince traditionally conservative federal agencies that students can to professional work in multimedia. ? Land a national environmental education web development contract. ? Plan and develop the “Hands on the Land” web site structure. ? Implement the curriculum and tie it to developing environmental education web sites all while keeping the project in tact and on sequence. Yet the partnership had the optimism of succeeding in the past where many thought they could not. More than any other aspect, the project enjoyed unbelievable luck in its sequencing. As nothing like this has ever been done before, many of the obstacles were unforeseeable. Yet few obstacles were insurmountable; the good fortune was uncanny: ? A United States Congressional Appropriation was provided and sponsored by US Senator Slade Gorton. ? A major National Park coincidentally wished to partner with the WTA to develop programs for teachers to take students on service-learning wilderness expeditions. ? The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) wished to design a first-ever risk management policy for teachers taking students into the wilderness; this program was its first project. ? Amazing support and commitment from Macromedia and OSPI. ? The multimedia curriculum was completed with not much time to spare. ? A technology franchise concept that proved very popular and was highly supported by Washington’s schools and by OSPI. ? A renowned environmental education webmaster (who worked with the WTA in 1995 and 1996) suddenly reemerged and wanted develop the web structure. ? Extremely motivated teachers and students were in the pilot groups. ? Land managers were somewhat skeptical of the project design…teams of high school students producing environmental education web sites for land agencies across America? After some convincing and displaying of work performed by previous graduates, ultimately the model was accepted.