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Below are answers to some questions you may have. Please look here first. If you still need help, write to us at sciencefirsthand@firsthandlearning.org.
- How do I get to know what Science Firsthand teams have done?
- Where do I report a bug or problem with the site?
How do I get to know what Science Firsthand teams have done?
There are three main options: browse the journals, browse the questions, browse the field guides.
1. Browse the Journals
The Science Firsthand teams are just beginning to use their online journals (the first teams started meeting August of 2005). Team journals are presented under the name of the center where the team meets. Each member of a team contributes to a journal, so there may be two, unique accounts for each team meeting.
To view journals, click on a city on the U.S. map. Team journals are listed on the Journal tab. Click on a center to view team journals for a specific center. Click on any journal title to view the journal. From there, you can explore team observations (pages), questions, collections, and investigations.
Note: you can also use the "Search Journals" field to search for a specific journal by name.
As you perform these clicks you will see a string of words (a crumb trail) appear at the top of the page (below the Science Firsthand banner). Use this crumb word trail to retrace your steps or to jump back to your starting point.
2. Browse the Questions
All the questions that all the teams have raised (and made public) are searchable here. Some questions will be the subject of ongoing investigations while others may be there waiting in the wings for a later time.
Questions are listed under the Questions tab by city or center. You can also use the "Search Questions" field to search for questions by key words (e.g. snakes or sidewalk). Or just page through the questions in the list until you find a key word that you would like to search. You may find that teams in different parts of a city or in different cities share the same question. In either case, the questions will link you to relevant team journals. To backtrack from team journals, use the crumb word trail below the banner at the top of the page.
3. Browse the Field Guides
As a joint effort, the teams in a city or a center combine their entries about specific objects or habitats to make a field guide for their area. To view field guides, click on the Field Guide tab for a city or center. Use the Group menu to explore groups that interest you. If you want to see field guide entries for the whole country, select "All Cities" from the Switch locations menu, then select the Field Guide tab.
Where do I report a bug or problem with the site?
Please report all bugs or problems to sciencefirsthand@firsthandlearning.org.
When you report a bug or problem, it is very helpful if you include the following information:
- A full description of the problem, including the steps taken to create the error.
- The Web address (URL) of the error page.
- The kind of computer you are using (e.g. PC or Mac), and the operating system (e.g. Windows XP, Windows 2000, OS X), if you know it.
- The Web browser you are using (e.g. Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, Safari) and the version number, if you know it.
We greatly appreciate your help in making the site better!
