Harmony student teams with the Aquatic Research Institute on senior project

Heather Bartlett, senior at Harmony school, received basic diving training at the Aquatic Research Institute as part of her senior graduation project.  But, that is only the beginning of the story.  Not only did she receive the training, but she also participated in the Diving into space: Aquanaut to Astronaut connection with Harmony and University Elementary schools on January 27, 2000.  Heather participated in the program underwater along with diver/instructor Tim Early as they talked about how divers and astronauts use their life support systems, their communication systems, and how they are trained.  During this presentation Heather was able to communicate back to the schools through a special mask that allows them to talk with the students that were connected.  The Aquatic Research Institute is developing student mentorships and educational opportunities for the future.

This program is highly recommended and is listed in the catalog and on the CEC web site (http://www.cec.state.in.us/).  The Aquatic Research Institute has also provided programs for several other DIAL schools.  Columbus North on the Four Gas Laws, Gosport Elementary and Spencer with the Ben Mikaelsen project, and Edgewood Middle School on the Maritime History of Indiana.  We are looking forward to maintaining an already active relationship with this excellent content provider.

Heather continues her project as she received her advanced open water training in Florida.  She will return and work with the Aquatic Research Institute again on student related projects that they are working on for the summer.  She will be a student advisor and participate in other distance learning events to culminate her senior project.  Her participation in this project has opened doors for students within our region to develop an active relationship above and beyond distance learning directly with the Aquatic Research Institute.  Detailed program material is available upon request.

 DIAL Consortium Distance Learning Award Winning Projects

DIAL Consortium a group of ten Schools in South Central Indiana participating in the Vision Athena Project. Listed Below is just a few of the innovative projects that are supported by grants issued by the Corporation for Educational Communications.

Project: Stranded: But SOARing Beyond
Award: Elementary Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Stranded: But SOARing Beyond is an innovative literature-based interdisciplinary unit developed to complement the book Stranded by Ben Mikaelsen. This project brings students from Scottsburg and Spencer Elementary together through video distance learning. Our goal for this grant is to provide the participating students with a rich background of information that increases their understanding of the book through state-of-the-art distance learning technologies. Components include:

 

• Testing our own local rivers and streams and examining the aquatic life existing in that habitat and sharing those results in a distance learning event between schools
• Exploring larger freshwater habitats such as Lake Michigan through a distance learning event from Aquatic Research Institute
• A distance learning event with Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida about the study of saltwater environments. It focused on the rescue and rehabilitation of marine mammals in addition to an event with Ben Mikaelsen talking about writing the book Stranded. The students created scenes from the book and were provided with games and other activities that are based on the book.

For more information on Read-and-Feeds check the Spencer-Owen site: http//www.socs.k12.in.us/schools/ovms/read_and_feed/default.html.

Project: Sharing Perspectives
Award: Cultural Impact

Sharing Perspectives is a distance learning program that links two Indiana schools that are culturally very different. Through interactive video, fifth and sixth grade students from Harmony school in Bloomington communicate with fifth graders from Carrie Gosch school in East Chicago. Harmony students are predominately Caucasian and from middle class families where parents tend to be college educated. Carrie Gosch students are predominantly African American and from low-income families in which few parents have attended college.

The goal is to get the children together through interactive video to share meaningful learning experiences and support them in creating meaningful relationships with each other. They will be reading critically as they share books that deal with important issues through literature discussions, research career possibilities, and share the results in interesting presentations through distance learning. Most importantly, they will be given opportunities to work with students who come from a different culture, speak in a different dialect, and possibly hold different beliefs and have different ideas. This will culminate in mutual student visits. They will work and eventually socialize side by side and experience the joy of diversity.

Project: School to Work
Award: Interschool Business Class

For the past three years, two classes have met between Columbus North and East High Schools three days a week sharing curriculum and guest speakers. This model class will be utilized for other applications in the business curriculum as more C-4 schools as Hauser High School join the network. We acknowledge Mike Hackman and Matt Hankins for their leadership in developing classroom applications in distance learning.

 

Project: German 3 class
Award: Foreign Language Application

Ramona Winter-Leigh's German 3 class is taught daily from Edgewood High School to Southern Wells Jr.-Sr. High School. This distance learning opportunity allows the students at Southern Wells to complete their foreign language requirements. This is the second class taught by distance learning.

Project: Mooresville High School
Award: Network Consolidation Model

Mooresville School receives this award for their organizational structure in coordinating the use between the consolidated high school, middle school, and surrounding elementary schools. We have found that this model of organization is very useful and that other consolidated schools might consider adopting it.

Project: The Solar-Powered Car Project
Award: Technology Impact

The Solar Powered Car Project increases awareness of solar car technology for students around the state and promotes students learning from students as well as instructors. This project uses distance learning technologies such as satellite, fiberoptic, ISDN, and Internet web resources to expose schools to the work of The Solar Car Team from Columbus North High School. This interdisciplinary program has value for many areas of learning including mathematics, geography, physics, and business as it pertains to the solar car team. Emphasis is placed on higher order thinking skills and problem solving strategies.

Project: Virtual Indiana Elementary School Network (VIESN)
Award: School Networking

VIESN is a model of distance learning for elementary schools in Indiana. Eight schools collaborate via a distance learning network that brings students together to enrich their experiences and share their work.. Partnerships between the member schools have facilitated classroom to classroom connections where students share joint experiences in literature, science, and thematic studies. Teachers meet via distance learning for planning the collaborative skills. VIESN schools include Southern Wells Jr.-Sr. and Kokomo High School in the north; Fishback Creek Public Academy, Eagle Creek and Indian Creek Elementary, and Eastern Hancock in central and east central Indiana; Eastern Greene County and Gosport Elementary in the south central region. The VIESN project is funded by a grant from the Corporation for Educational Communications.

Project: A Tale of Two States
Award: Cultural Collaboration

A Tale of Two States is a distance learning unit that links fifth and sixth grade students from an independent school in Indiana with sixth graders from a traditional school in Hawaii. The yearlong thematic unit uses experts from both Hawaii and Indiana to relate the geological, ecological and cultural histories of these two unique territories through two-way interactive video. Both classes use research skills, field experience, data collection, and field trips to explore the uniqueness of their state history. The intended outcome of this unit is to give both classes a better understanding of who they are by looking at the past. Although both groups of children are demographically diverse, through shared responsibility, they can realize how much they have in common. Through two-way interactive video, these children collaborate efficiently and effectively. A Tale of Two States is a model of how classrooms can establish distant relationships regardless of where their walls reside.

Project: Langston Hughes
Award: Community Arts Project

The Langston Hughes Project is a series of presentations and performances directed by Dr. Jon Wright of the University of Minnesota on the life and times of Langston Hughes. It involves an auditorium lecture, a student workshop on literature and jazz, and a community performance. The Columbus Arts Council collaborated with the Langston Hughes Project to adapt the literature workshop into a distance learning event involving Columbus North and East high schools in addition to high schools from Ohio and Texas. This project is a model of integrating community projects into schools.

Project: Keiko Kasza Project
Award: Parent Involvement

Author/illustrator Keiko Kasza is a parent at University Elementary school who is offering a program on May 10th, 2000 about her process of writing children's books. The titles of the books include Mother for Choco, Wolf's Chicken Stew, Don't Laugh, Joe, and The Pig's Picnic. Keiko is volunteering her services for the benefit of the schools around Indiana through a connection at University Elementary school. During the distance learning event Keiko will read from her books, explain with visuals the process of making a book, and demonstrate how she converts a photograph of children or people into an illustration of animals. Keiko will also show foreign editions of her books which show the uniqueness of the culture of the publication. Please contact Karen Boswell at University Elementary (812-330-7753 x272) by May 1^st if you are interested in this program.

Solar Car team presents the mechanics of the solar car

On March 17, 2000 the Solar Car Team completed its second program after the Australia broadcast.  The subject of the program was the mechanics of the solar car.  Students from the solar car team presented problem solving scenarios to the interactive sites that were Hamilton Southeastern and Mooresville High School.  These problem-solving skills were based upon data that was gathered during the solar car race in Australia.  This mode of critical thinking and interaction based on real data is a new form that is being explored through this program.  Through the participation in these connections, Malcolm Stalcup, director of the solar car project, is hoping to create more interest in solar car racing around the state.

The next program in this series will be presented on April 26, 2000.  The presentation will deal with the economics of the solar car.  Students from business, marketing, and economics would be the target group.  Community partners that were involved with this on the solar car team will be utilized in the presentation.  An interactive packet will be sent to your school.

Flags, Dog tags, and Duffel bags

This grant in written by Kim Vincent who is a sixth grade teacher at Owen Valley Middle School. This grant was done in conjunction with Dana Dilger, a teacher from Tell City Middle School. This grant focuses on issues related to World War II.  Some of the topic areas of exploration are the Holocaust, Effects on the American home front, Japanese Internment, Pearl Harbor, and Atomic Bombing.  There is a series of six connections beginning with a review game between the two schools on those topics. The second event is with the Indiana Historical Society talking about the home front during World War II.   The third event features a connection about atomic bombing put on by the Center for Global Studies in Bloomington.  The fourth event features a connection with a Holocaust survivor from the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.  The fifth event is another game show based on the book Tunes for Bears to Dance about World War II.  And the final connection will involve the students in a debate on the topic of the National World War II monument.  This is an interdisciplinary multimedia unit and quite innovative. More information is available by request.

Out of the darkness

Out of the darkness is a grant written by Sheila Sparks, teacher at Owen Valley Middle School, related to the Middle Ages.  This project features a live festival put on by the Society for Creative Anachronism.  It also includes a connection subsequent to the festival on medieval weaving, again supplied by the Society.  Also featured were connections with the Indianapolis Museum of Art which demonstrated symbolism in medieval art.  The grant has now been completed and is in the final writing stages of the evaluation of all the events.

Foreign language teacher delivers program on economic survival in Latin America.

Gene Foldenauer, head of the foreign language department at Columbus North High School, has developed and delivered an innovative program on the economic survival in Latin America. This program is based on his experience taking students to Canaille Mexico and doing community service work there.  In that process he has gathered a number of products made by local people to sell as income to foreign tourist in the area.  The program emphasizes on the fact that the need for economic survival has driven the creativity of the people to develop these products. The program features video that he has taken in Canaille to demonstrate some of his points.  It also involves some of his third-year Spanish students talking about the objects and trying to get his students to guess what they are.  This format, called the Liar's Club, presents three different possible answers to the question, What is this devise? The students are then asked to guess their answer and are given feedback.

His first connection was with a middle school in Gene's hometown of Michigan City. This was the middle school's first program and it was well received at both ends.  The high school students at Columbus North got a well deserved round of applause for their participation in the program. Having seen this program myself I highly recommend it for fifth grade through high school.  This program is appropriate not only for foreign language, but also for history and culture exposure. Gene has just made a return trip to Canaille and has now updated his program. A description of this program is listed on page 121of Vision Athena catalog if you are interested.

Don't miss your chance to sign up for the latest in distance learning!  We are offering two distance learning workshops this summer on planning implementation and curriculum integration.  See the next few pages for more details and to register.

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