Currently, we are piloting a new project with me working directly with
teachers to find a curriculum unit and using technology as one of the tools.
There are three pilots just begun: 3rd grade teachers (4) doing "deserts."
We will be including a keypal element with the class communicating with a
class in another desert area -- actual children who live in a desert (we are
still searching out these keypals.) They will be asking questions of the
children on what it's like to actually live in the deserts. We are also
looking for internet sites with a desert theme and are starting to find a
few. We'll show the children these sites for information on what desert life
is like. We have several CD-ROM's on order including "Life in the Desert"
and a number of animals CD-ROM's for the children to research (they all
choose a desert animal.) The end result will be some kind of publishing in a
newsletter or presentation form with scanned in photographs.
The second project is with 4th graders and their teachers (also 4 teachers)
who have a "river tank." They will be filling the tank with plants and
animals indigenous to the Hudson River -- which is right next to us. They'll
be using the computers as a logging and analysis tool -- with tables and
charts in Microsoft Excel. They'll also be looking for keypal tie-ins but so
far we're not having luck on this. The end result will be a newsletter for
each "group" of five students working as a team. With this project, we're
recording our experiences throughout with a camera. Experiences will include
a talk by a Hudson River expert and a 1/2 visit to the River for recording
and observation of water fowl, boats, etc. These pictures will be eventually
scanned and incorporated into some of the newsletters.
The third project is with the 5th graders -- all 61 of them from several
classes -- and is on Animals. The children will be choosing an animal and
researching the animal with CD-ROM software as well as books. We'll be
looking to several Internet sites including zoos, SN's Animals expert Roland
Smith, and others. We'll do an "Amazing Facts About Animals" newsletters
with photos and unusual information the kids' have accumulated.
I've already given workshops on software, the Internet and other topics and
this is the next step in our staff development plan.
-- Pamela Livingston
district computer support specialist
The Hendrick Hudson School District
Montrose, NY
livingsp@aol.com