Mary Ellen Verona
Maryland Virtual High School, 51 East University Boulevard, Silver Spring, MD 20901, USA
{mverona@mvhs1.mbhs.edu}

The Maryland Virtual High School of Science and Mathematics has created a statewide community of practice supporting teachers in implementing computer modeling activities ranging from traffic tailgating to enzyme behavior in their classrooms. Teachers have worked together in developing computer investigations that help students achieve state and national learning goals. At the same time, MVHS is part of a team of scientists and educators who are designing a web based watershed environment that provides students with experience "collecting" data and visualizing relationships between water quality parameters such as precipitation, temperature, nutrients, toxins and dissolved oxygen. The MVHS community of practice is ready to leverage these two efforts by developing an extended repertoire of web accessible simulations based on our existing modeling activities. Scaffolding to encourage careful inquiry will include reference pages and online student notebooks. Curriculum materials designed to accompany the web environment will emphasize graphical analysis techniques. Discussion areas open to multiple classes will be directly tied to these investigations and research in student learning will benefit from immediate access to the work of students at multiple locations. Successful implementation of the WebSim vision depends on applying lessons learned from the past related to information principles and teachers roles.