JASON Project XI fuses technology, science

Tuesday, Feb. 29, 2000 | 10:34 a.m.

More than 15,000 Clark County students and 350 teachers are participating in the JASON Project XI, a premier national education program that each year produces live science lessons to students worldwide via the Internet.

"The students have studied a curriculum over the last four to five months to prepare for this," said Joyce Woodhouse, director for the Clark County School District's School Community Partnership Program.

"JASON Project XI is designed to take students to the cutting edge of technology and turns them on to science. It will show them that as they move on in life, all possibilities are out there."

This year's JASON Project, which began Monday and will continue through March 10, will take students, teachers and other Internet users on a live expedition to the world's only underwater laboratory on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean and on a fascinating journey to galaxies far away.

The project uses webcasts, Internet chats, games and space station simulations. Each day 1,500 to 2,000 local students will participate in the program at the Community College of Southern Nevada's Horn Auditorium and visit three exhibit rooms.

"What makes JASON so special is that it is always challenging," said Woodhouse, noting that the project has been a part of the school district education experience for the past eight years. "The students have had several months to prepare and are looking for answers to their questions."

The JASON Project is headed by Robert Ballard, who in 1985 found the bulk of the sunken luxury liner, the Titanic, at the bottom of the Atlantic. This year Ballard is directing lessons from the Aquarius Underwater Laboratory off the Coast of Key Largo, Fla., and the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

On Wednesday at 5 p.m., Ballard is scheduled to chat with students on the Internet about what it is like to be an explorer in extreme environments.

The JASON Project website is www.jasonproject.org.

Ed Koch is a reporter for the Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-4090 or by e-mail at koch@lasvegassun.com.