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Tardigrades: In the Classroom, Laboratory, and on the Internet.

Developing students' understanding of the nature of science is an objective of all high quality science instruction. Recent efforts to reform science education in the United States have strongly emphasized this understanding as an essential component of general scientific literacy. The Kansas Collaborative Research Network (KanCRN) is an open, internet-based, community of researchers, teachers, and students who believe that the best way to understand the nature of science is to engage in ongoing research. During the development of the Tardigrade Survey section we were faced with questions of how to present projects and challenges to high school level students that would stimulate their interest in and foster their investigatory approach to science without being to prescriptive or didactic. Our desire was to help students become active researchers, collaborating with others and developing and using skills of scientific inquiry to conduct research. Several key components are used in the project: collaborative research coordinated through the website, interaction with a fully qualified Mentor, a of set standardized protocols and references, a key to the animals, a data review process, an accessible database, a comprehensive plan for curation of the specimens, and a multi-leveled plan of recognition, reporting, and publication. We have designed a model for collaborative research directed to achieving these goals and by use of the Internet will be available and useable by schools around the world.