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Virginia Tech

Wood Magic Program: A Distance Education Perspective

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Research has shown that widespread misperceptions prevail regarding the use and sustainability of America's forest resources. Elementary school students receive only a general foundation in the area of wood science and many elementary school resources have shown to be inadequate. Virginia Tech and a few other universities have adopted Wood Magic (originated at Mississippi State University) which presents active, hands-on, and engaging science-based education to third, fourth, and fifth graders, allowing them the opportunity to obtain both a theoretical and practical knowledge in these areas of study. A distance education version of the Wood Magic Program, utilizing interactive videoconferencing, is the focus of this thesis. An instructional design model has been developed to meet the needs of designers or instructors looking to expand into the distance education environment. This model describes all steps necessary to develop and implement a distance course or program. A survey was conducted of all randomly selected third, fourth, and fifth grade elementary school science teachers in Virginia. The intentions of the survey were to discover the barriers to implementing the Wood Magic Distance Education Program into their current curriculum. The three largest barriers to implementation were cost of materials, time, and travel resources.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Wood Science and Forest Products
Department dc:contributor.department
Wood Science and Forest Products
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2002

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Pugh, Christina Elizabeth
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Zink-Sharp, Audrey G.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Kirwan, Jeffrey L.
  • Lockee, Barbara B.
  • Winistorfer, Paul

Subjects

dc:subject × 5

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright
Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-05202002-160042
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/42756

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Pugh, Christina Elizabeth. Wood Magic Program: A Distance Education Perspective. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/42756