(Newswire.net — May 7, 2014) —
Scott Tucker, a high school biology teacher in Indiana recently championed the cause of the open source science project OpenWorm, after the project launched a Kickstarter campaign to produce browser based software that will make the project accessible to non-technical users.
Scott Tucker announced his own contribution to the Kickstarter campaign as soon as fundraising began, and since then has promoted the project everyday to his students and fellow teachers.
“This is going to be on of the most revolutionary and invaluable teaching tools ever created,” says Scott Tucker. “The C. elegans worm is a staple of biology education and this open science projects id the first ever complete virtual re-creation of an actual biological organism.”
Before pushing his students and colleagues to donate, Tucker garnered support from the school administration and the rest of the school’s science department. With the help of the school administration, Tucker organized an assembly in which he showed the OpenWorm Kickstarter video, and then explained the applications that the software would have in the classroom.
Tucker commented further on the projects: “The OpenWorm software allows students to explore the workings of the C. elegans worm in incredible detail. In the OpenWorm interface that is being developed you can perform a compete virtual dissection of the worm. Every part of the organism is digitally modeled and available for inspection.”
Scott Tucker says that he attempted to get the district to match funds contributed by students, but the school board was unable to find room for possible donations in the district’s budget.
“It’s a shame that the district can’t contribute,” says Tucker. “But I understand the need for fiscal responsibility. The OpenWorm project needs to raise $120,000 and I hope that we can help them get there.”
According to Scott Tucker, he will continue advocating for the project everyday until fundraising ends.