Pre-1999
BA is based on a card-based board game students use called Groundwater Project.
1999
Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL) and Barnard College develop the initial version of BA in Macromedia Director. Subsequent development efforts continue and improved versions follow.
April 2003
Dissemination and demonstration of BA takes place at the first BA Seminar funded by a Mellon Foundation CET grant. Lafayette College and Connecticut College faculty start to use BA in their courses.
May 2003
BA selected as a national model curriculum by SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities), a national dissemination project funded by the NSF.
2003 – 2005
BA is presented and disseminated during the SENCER national conferences.
Spring 2004
“Dissemination of BA at Lafayette College” project funded by a Mellon CET grant. This allowed the upgrade and evaluation of BA in Prof. Art Kney’s upper level environmental site assessment class at Lafayette College.
Spring 2004
“BA: Digital Worlds and Inquiry-Based Learning. A New Teaching Model” project funded by an NSF CCLI Proof of Concept grant. This funded initial developments for a modularized version of BA using updated software technology that was rolled out to Prof. Doug Thompson’s upper level hydrology class at Connecticut College.
Spring 2006
“Brownfield Action: Expansion and Evaluation of a Proven Inquiry-Based Approach to Teaching and Learning Environmental Science” project funded by an NSF-CCLI Phase II Full-development grant. This funded a complete overhaul of the existing software, the creation of a new user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI), and robust server capabilities allowing unlimited users. The grant also provides for the training, dissemination, and evaluation of the new BA to a new faculty user at Georgia State College and University as well as the evaluation of the new BA as it is used at Lafayette College and Connecticut College. The grant also provided funding for a BA mini-conference in August of 2007 where all users of BA met to see the unveiling and showcasing of the latest simulation and to discuss the promotion and dissemination of BA in the future.
1999
CCNMTL, Barnard in-house funding, with additional partial funding from NSF through Barnard's Faculty Cluster for Information Technology program for a Student Technology Assistant - $60,000
1999
Gardner Dunnan, the Virtual Reading Room for the Brownfield Action Project - $10,000
2003
Mellon Foundation CET grant - $19,000
2004
Mellon Foundation CET grant - $17,000
2004
NSF CCLI Proof-of-Concept grant - $75,000
2006
NSF CCLI Phase II Full-Development grant - $450,000