Peer Review

KONZA - Prairie in Study

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Jul 21, 2003 by Biology

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: The Konza Website provides information focused on research, education, and
conservation of the prairie ecosystem that once dominated much of the United States. This tallgrass prairie ecosystem in Manhattan, Kansas is part of Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) supported by the National Science Foundation. The main site provides links for visiting scientist information, an education program, searchable databases, maps, publications, on-going projects, weather, an image gallery, and other aspects of the Konza Prairie Project. The Konza Environmental Education Program (KEEP) may be especially useful for teaching since it provides trail maps, children's activities, pictures of plants, butterflies and grasshoppers, and a unique shockwave application called the prairie bison adventure that can be used for exploring the prairie.
Type of Material:: Collection / Database
Recommended Uses:: Material may have limited use in the classroom but would serve well as independent study and special assignments for individual students.
Technical Requirements:: Most material is hypertext, although there is at least one shockwave application that requires use of the downloadable program.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Users will learn about research, education, and conservation of the Konza tallgrass prairie.
Target Student Population:: Elementary, high school, undergraduate, and to some extent, graduate students will acquire new knowledge from the information at this Website.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Some previous knowledge about ecology and/or environmental science will help users understand concepts.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

Quality of Content: 4.5, 4.8 = 4.7

High quality images
Provides access to actual research data
Material includes lots of information on the Konza prairie and continues to expand
Includes biodiversity as well as abiotic factors (weather, fire, etc.)
Accurate
Can be used for general and/or detailed study of this tallgrass prairie, depending on the extent to which users navigate through Website
Some maps are interactive

Concerns:

Images of insects, reptiles, and other specimens are limited but continue to expand
This is a work in progress and covers all activities at the site. There are areas not addressed due to resource restrictions

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

Potential Effectiveness: 4.6, 5.0 = 4.8

Main Website is simply informative, although the Konza KEEP link provides excellent resources for learning about tallgrass prairie
Contains a section with suggestions on how to use with classroom activities
The wide range of materials provided with this Website can be adapted to many situations both in the classroom and as out-of-class assignments / explorations
New and useful information is presented
The shockwave application, "Prairie Bison Adventure" is an excellent learning tool

Concerns:

Since the site is not designed as an educational resource, use of the site will require assignments with explicit instructions to help students extract information beyond the descriptions of habitats and organisms. This is especially true for use of research data.
An indication of the intended age and/or class level for information in different ?lessons? supplied would facilitate use.
The search component should be moved to a more obvious location

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

Ease of Use: 4.7, 4.0 = 4.4

Appropriately searchable, although the search component needs to be moved to the main page
Easy to navigate and organized well from a research standpoint
Provides section of Guidelines for teachers
No missing links found

Concerns:

Site functions are easy to use but do not lead easily to educational use by students without direction
One link (STLER Cross-Site Workshop) requires a password

Other Issues and Comments:: This is a great Website for learning about one of the tallgrass prairie reserves. It is a good model for others to follow.
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