FALLBROOK - Researchers said this week that they hope a new program that allows virtual, interactive tours of scientific sites will catch on in local classrooms, as scientists begin offering digital tours of the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve in De Luz.

Dubbed "Live Interactive Virtual Explorations," the program connects scientists in the field with students at their desks via the Internet, allowing the youths to ask questions and view distant sites they would not be able to reach on a field trip.

The engineers and scientists who have developed the program say it is inexpensive to set up and operate, and that the only requirement is an ample amount of Internet "bandwidth," technical lingo for the rate at which data is exchanged.

Last week, a trio of researchers from UC San Diego and San Diego State University provided a North County Times reporter with a real-life tour of the reserve in De Luz, to demonstrate how computers and the vast wireless network blanketing the 4,500-acre site can offer students a lablike experience from the comfort of their classrooms.

The reserve is located along the east side of De Luz, a large, rural community north of Fallbrook and west of Temecula.

"We really want to develop the educational side of taking a digital nature walk," said Pablo Bryant, an SDSU researcher who in March broadcast a series of water-quality tests in real time for a gathering of high school students in Del Mar.

Bryant said he carried a laptop computer in his backpack, wore a headset so he could hear the students' questions, and streamed his every move with a camcorder connected to the laptop.

The hourlong exercise was sent to students in Del Mar over the high-speed wireless network that was installed several years ago on the reserve.

Bryant said he enjoyed being able to share the way he conducts experiments in the heavily protected Santa Margarita River, which runs from Temecula through De Luz and Camp Pendleton to the ocean. Bryant said the tour offered students a unique vantage point, because public access to the reserve is limited.

"We can't have casual public use (of the land), because that goes against the reasons for having a reserve," he said.

How it works

The program's developers say it doesn't require a lot of special equipment, just a classroom with Internet access and a projection screen that can be hooked up to a computer, plus a scientist with a camera and a wireless-Internet capable laptop that can stream the information.

"We're not talking about thousands of dollars; we're talking maybe a few tens of dollars," said Hans-Werner Braun, who runs the High-Performance Wireless Research and Education Network at UCSD, which spearheaded program.

Spring Strahm, a field biologist who is stationed at the De Luz reserve, led a virtual tour in February for a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco.

She said the technology allowed her to interact with her distant audience in ways previously unimaginable.

"It changes how you can approach various issues," Strahm said, holding up the headset that she used to talk with the audience in San Francisco.

Braun said the interactive aspect of the program is perhaps its best feature because it allows the students to pursue their curiosity, much like they would in a biology lab.

"She could really communicate with them and they could ask her questions, like, 'Show us that,' and she could point the camera at something in the water," he said.

Feedback

It's only been used a couple of times so far, but UCSD officials say the technology will eventually become a commonly used tool for schools that are far removed from rich scientific spots that could add spice to their students' science curriculum.

Kisa Collins, coordinator of the learning center at the Pala Indian Reservation, said Thursday that she helped coordinate a virtual tour of the Palomar Observatory in April using the university's new technology.

She said the tour was led by observatory scientist Scott Kardel, and exposed about 60 tribal members to the cutting-edge technology.

"The picture came through really well, and the sound was good," Collins said, adding that the preschool children at whom the presentation was aimed were mostly fascinated, even if they didn't always understand what they were seeing. "I think, because of their age, they thought (Kardel) was in space, because he was talking about planets and things. One of the little ones asked if Darth Vader was up there."

She said the tour was a good opportunity for some older residents who cannot travel to see an interesting scientific site.

"It's kind of neat to bring the younger kids together with the elders, and have them both discovering things at the same time that a lot of our elders probably wouldn't go out and look at," she said. "It actually went really well, considering it was our first time."

The tribe has a digital tour of the Santa Margarita reserve planned for July 10.

"Something like the ecological reserve we probably would not take (the students) to. It's hard to travel to all those places from here, so it's really nice" to have a program available that will make previously unreachable locations accessible, she said.

Not proprietary

Braun, the UCSD scientist who helped develop the program, said that he hopes other scientists will run with the technology.

He said it could go in all sorts of directions, with the possibilities for student-scientist networking being limited only by the imagination.

Theoretically, the program could work with a wireless card that plugs into a laptop and broadcasts via a broadband connection to a cellular phone network such as Verizon or Cingular, Braun said. That would open the horizon even further, as users would not be limited to areas that have established wireless networks such as the one in De Luz.

"If you have the bandwidth, it should be possible," he said, adding that he enjoys watching researchers such as Bryant and Strahm multiply the educational possibilities that it makes possible.

For more information about the program, visit the Web site at http://hpwren.ucsd.edu.

- Contact staff writer Tom Pfingsten at (760) 731-5799 or tpfingsten@nctimes.com.