The Story of the Stone

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Focus and Purpose

The Story of the Stone is a collaborative, multidisciplinary, inquiry based, project oriented approach to learning while exploring the geological history of Indiana. The project will use the research gathered by 4th grade University School students to share with other classrooms throughout the state.
During this semester long investigation, students will research Indiana geology/ history, and its impact on the world by using a variety of resources. Students will research by working in collaborative groups and individually. This project will be accomplished by using local school media forms including publications, videos, field trips, field studies, computer technologies and accessing experts in our community.
The expected outcomes of this project will be: gathering primary and secondary research, creating a video documentary of our research and the process of investigation, and sharing the results with other schools via distance learning.

Population

The participants in The Story of the Stone are primarily fourth grade gifted and talented students of University School in Bloomington, Indiana. Our main target audience will be other fourth grade classrooms and earth science classes throughout the state. In addition, this process as well as product will be shared with other preservice and service teachers taking university course work in graduate gifted education curriculum and methodologies. (W552, W553 and W595 through Indiana University)

Community Partners

During this unit, our school will use resources from the greater community to aid student learning. These resources will be shared through the use of video recordings and distance learning technology.
University School will solicit the aide of Indiana University Professor of Geology, Michael Hamburger and the Indiana Geological Survey. Professor Hamburger will be a resource for the geological history of Indiana. In addition, we will invite a local sculptor and historian of Indiana limestone to share his/her expertise, knowledge, and craft with us. Field trips will include a local limestone quarry/mill as well as touring Marengo Cave. Finally, students will visit local limestone buildings and monuments in Bloomington. Students will research, prepare questions, interview, videotape, and narrate this documentary.
A primary component of this project will be using the expertise of Indiana University graduate student, Justin Marquis. He will train our fourth grade students in the art of videotaping, editing, and production. With his technological assistance, we will produce the video document that we will share via distance learning.

Project Reach and Benefit

There are many projected benefits for this thematic unit. Most importantly, it is a tool to allow children to work together with the larger community. It is an incredible opportunity for students to gather, synthesize, and present their findings to other classrooms throughout the state. Furthermore, this project will encourage other schools to research their local community resources. It is our desire, that many fourth grade classrooms will participate in similar studies in the future. This project fulfills numerous State Curriculum Standards in technology, social studies, and science. Language arts standards are incorporated throughout.

Technology Training

Justin Marquis, a local videographer and computer expert will be the technology coordinator and will provide video production training for all involved.
Opportunities will be provided for students, parent volunteers, and participating teachers to be trained in distance learning technology. David Bartlett, the Distance Learning Coordinator, has agreed to provide training experience for any of the team members that are not familiar with the use of this technology.
University Elementary School has all the technological equipment necessary for the entire project. Both Mr. Marquis and Mr. Bartlett have seen and approved our equipment for this project.

Project Evaluation and Dissemination

Student work will be evaluated in a number of ways. This will include the quality of students' research, the extent of learned skills in the collaborative process, presentation communication skills, and content retained. This will be accomplished by teacher observation, evaluation of student products, student self-assessment, testing of knowledge, and overall presentation skills.
The dissemination of this project will be evaluated by the number of distance learning connections we make with other classrooms. Each connection will be followed up with a survey of project quality and community/school application.
Dr. Janice Bizzari, principal of University Elementary and professor of gifted and talented education, will share this process and project model with graduate and undergraduate students. Through reflective journals and project outlines, she will assess the usefulness and application of this model to other classrooms and content areas.
Further dissemination will include a web page and video of this project. The video will be made available to other classrooms throughout the state for a nominal cost.

Project Timeline

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Created: Nov.25.2000   Last updated: Nov.26.2000. Comment to Dave Bartlett.