Welcome to Highland Park

Many students in West Virginia are distant from historic sites that might integrate math and scientific operations into more familiar learning experiences. For this reason, Integrated Science faculty and information technologists at Marshall University, cooperating with West Virginia science and math teachers, and with the assistance of student programmers are developing a virtual Appalachian community that brings the richness of Appalachian history, geology, hydrology, and biology to students via the electronic medium. Highland Park consists of virtual forests and wetlands along with the human communities that have historically interacted with them.

This virtual system provides an intellectual resource in which students monitor the effects of transportation systems, abandoned mine lands, and acid rain on West Virginia forests and wetland communities. Students also act as forensic scientists who use virtual representations of the most current DNA technology to solve area crimes. Students engaged with Highland Park integrate basic scientific principles with computer and math skills as they quantify environmental and forensic problems and develop solutions for them.

Highland Park is migrating to the Internet, but is currently available on CD-ROM.