Bell Atlantic, Earthwatch Collaborate To Send Teachers on Research Expeditions

Bell Atlantic, Earthwatch Collaborate To Send Teachers on Research Expeditions

Students to Benefit from Networked Curricula About Environmental Issues

July 3, 1997

ARLINGTON, Va. - Ten innovative teachers from the mid-Atlantic region
are gearing up for summer expeditions to study everything from woolly
mammoth fossils in England and whales in Washington, to pre-Columbian
architecture in Mexico and a 900 year-old astronomical observatory in
Arizona.

The teachers are part of the third class of Bell Atlantic-funded
Fellows to take summer "field trips" and develop interactive curricula
from what they learn. The ten will travel to environmental research
sites sponsored by Earthwatch, the Massachusetts-based international
environmental research organization.

This summer, the teachers will serve as science assistants at the
sites and, upon their return to school in the fall, they will develop
innovative ways to share what they've learned with students in their
classrooms and beyond using networks and technologies developed as
part of the program.

For three years, Earthwatch, along with Lotus Development Corp., has
been working with more than 30 Bell Atlantic fellows and other
teachers from around the country to create and share curricula dealing
with various research projects, under the theme "Building
Collaborative Projects in Networked Schools."

The teachers are selected, in part, for their willingness to use new
technologies to share what they've experienced on the expeditions.
Robert Frostick of Horace Mann Junior High School in Charleston, W.
Va., for example, has received professional recognition for a web site
he developed after his trip to research katydids in Peru. His site
(http://168.216.210.13/amazon/) teaches about the biodiversity
throughout the Amazon river basin and includes contributions from
students around the nation.

"Each year, Earthwatch projects and educational programs inspire more
than 200 teacher fellows nationwide to refresh their curriculum and
emphasize hands-on science investigations, " explained Tally Forbes,
director of education at Earthwatch.

"Bell Atlantic was an early partner in this program and we're thrilled
to have 10 more creative and enthusiastic Bell Atlantic fellows going
on expeditions this summer," she said.

Forbes and the education team at Earthwatch, assisted by Tom Jarrett,
external affairs director for Bell Atlantic-Delaware, have worked with
Lotus Development Corp., and the teachers to use electronic mail, the
World Wide Web and other network applications in sharing environmental
science curricula and teaching processes in schools around the
country.

This year's field visits will take teachers to the Bahamas to study
reef ecology, Washington state to study killer whales, an English
paleo-history site to study large mammal and human adaptations to cold
climates, Mexico's Yucatan peninsula to study pre-Columbian
architecture, and the Casa Malpais Pueblo in Arizona to study an
ancient pueblo.

Some of the 1997 Bell Atlantic fellows will be teamed up with teachers
from other schools and with teachers from previous expeditions to
generate synergy and explore new networking options.

Teachers and their expeditions include:

Tracey Clark
Brookneal Elementary School
Brookneal, Va.
Whales

Elizabeth Wade
John I. Burton High School
Norton, Va.
England Paleohistory

Trudi Redmund
Benjamin Banneker Academic High School
Washington, D.C.
Whales

Susy Calvert
Maxwell High School
Beckley, W. Va.
Arizona Pueblo

Shayne Russell
Mt. Laurel Hartford School
Mt. Laurel, N.J.
Arizona Pueblo

Mary Fisher
Martin Luther King Elementary School
Wilmington, Del.
Bahamian Reef

Karen Hinson
Western School of Technology and Science
Baltimore, Md.
England Paleohistory

Jimmy Lettieri
Polytech High School
Woodside, Del.
England Paleohistory

Paula Flinn
McKinley Junior High School
St. Albans, W.Va.
Mexican Architecture

Margaret Ponzio
Alexander Batcho School
Manville, N.J.
Mexican Architecture

The Bell Atlantic Foundation supports projects in pre-college math,
science and technology education and innovative uses of technology in
education.

Bell Atlantic Corporation (NYSE: BEL) is at the forefront of the new
communications, entertainment and information industry. In the
mid-Atlantic region, Bell Atlantic's telephone company subsidiaries
are the premier providers of local telecommunications and advanced
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