89 Lighthouse Technology Grant Recipients for 2001-2002
The purpose of this grant program is to identify, enhance, and disseminate existing curriculum projects that have been implemented by classroom teachers. These projects will demonstrate effective models of teaching that incorporate new technology to motivate and support students in their learning the content of the district's curriculum guidelines and the state's learning standards. The teachers who originally implemented these projects will serve as mentors to their colleagues and new teachers, and the projects should become models for other classrooms in the school, other schools within the districts, and/or other districts in the state.
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Paula E. Fay
508-647-6400 x3559 |
Project Title: ALGEBRA TIME!
Project Overview:
The ALGEBRA TIME! project addresses the Number Sense & Operations strand, Patterns, Relations, & Algebra strand, and the Data Analysis, Statistics, & Probability strand of the Curriculum Frameworks for Mathematics. The activities involved in the project span the Grade 5 - 10 learning standards of the frameworks. The project also addresses two of the PreK - 12 Instructional Technology Standards. These are Standard 1. Demonstrate proficiency in the use of computers and applications as well as an understanding of concepts underlying hardware, software, and connectivity and Standard 3. Demonstrate ability to use technology for research, problem solving, and communication. The ALGEBRA TIME! project uses hand-held computing technology consisting of laptop computers and graphing calculators networked within the classroom and beyond to the Internet. This innovative project develops a comprehensive assessment system and creates an engaging learning environment. It will improve the mathematical experiences of a diverse group of eighth grade students in classes ranging from Honors Algebra for advanced students to Replacement Mathematics for special education students at the John F. Kennedy Middle School in Natick, MA. Activities in the ALGEBRA TIME! project include: staff development; applying hand-held technology to the learning of mathematics; curriculum development utilizing the Teaching for Understanding model for curriculum design; innovative assessment of both skill mastery and mathematical understanding; differentiating instruction; and connecting mathematics to real-world activities.
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Carol S. Holzberg, Ph.D.
Pat Lessie
413-259-1303 |
Project Title: The Peace Amphibian: An Arts & Literary Magazine Made by Kids with the "Write" Stuff
Project Overview:
The Peace Amphibian, an arts and literary magazine by Swift River1s PreK-6th grade students, consists of poetry, stories, and artwork showcasing children's best writing and artistic talents. In this cross-grade, multi-disciplinary, year-round project, students prepare contributions of writing and artwork in response to highly structured classroom activities. Some write stories in Kid Pix or Microsoft Word and illustrate their work with original images imported via scanner, ready-made clip art or photos taken with a digital camera. Others write poetry describing flowers they have painted with traditional oil pastels and watercolors, then altered via scanning and editing with Adobe Photoshop. Fifth and sixth graders serve as editors, accessing magazine content stored on the server and placing it in a magazine layout created with Adobe PageMaker. All Swift River students will receive a copy of the finished magazine by June. Project activities emphasize English language arts, visual arts, and technology integration, turning children into more effective writers.
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Carol S. Holzberg, Ph.D.
Janet DuCharme
413-259-1303 |
Project Title: It's Not Easy Being Green: Plant Studies for Active Learners
Project Overview:
This project is a thematic multi-disciplinary program in which technology enhanced activities reinforce curriculum presently in place. Students in the first and second grades engage in several inquiry-based, real world science activities focusing on plant diversity, growth, life cycle and anatomy. Age appropriate computer activities emphasize systematic investigation, comparison, and classification. Students use computers, digital cameras, and microscopes to reinforce and extend science concepts introduced in class.
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Karen Kelly
617-375-6123 |
Project Title: WebQuest Center
Project Overview:
Through the use of pre-selected WebQuests that align with our Newton Benchmarks, we intend to increase critical thinking skills in our students in grades K-5. A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity where some or all of the resources come from pre-selected sites on the Internet. The resources utilized in a WebQuest can range from the Minnesota Friends of Frogs project website to the NASA website. Students are given a task that involves research and analysis of information. WebQuests clearly align with the Newton Benchmarks; Outcome #9: Students will conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions using a variety of resources and Outcome #1: Students will engage in activities, which develop inquiry and critical thinking skills. To use a WebQuest a student needs only a computer with access to the Internet. WebQuests in our school have engaged students in higher-level cognition, forcing them to transform information into new products. Through the use of scaffolding, WebQuests have improved critical thinking skills in students. (Scaffolding involves breaking complex information into chunks, so students can understand it.) Students have shown an improved ability to work cooperatively with classmates. All of these outcomes have occurred under a new level of student motivation and excitement. As part of the grant, our team will find and create WebQuests that tie directly into the Massachusetts curriculum frameworks in all subject areas. We will create a Newton website that serves as a database for these exemplar WebQuests. Only those that align with benchmarks will be uploaded to the site.
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Sally Benbasset
617-552-7607 |
Project Title: Me, Myself, My Family and Community
Project Overview:
This project engages first graders in making decisions about their own learning and provides them with technological tools to express themselves in ways that are not limited to paper and pencil, thereby appealing to diverse learning styles. Through integration of various technologies such as a scanner, a multimedia authoring tool (KidPix), a graphic organizer (Kidspiration) and word processing, ALL students get actively involved in the unit. Students document each aspect of their learning experience through the creation of multimedia slideshows, a map of our school, graphs, and the use of a digital camera.
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Anne MacKenzie
Donna Anderson
508-541-5475 |
Project Title: The 1620's Express
Project Overview:
This standards based research project integrates Social Studies, Technology, and Information Literacy Standards in the second grade social studies, language arts, and technology curriculum. The main activities include research techniques, WebQuests, HyperStudio Stacks, journaling, digital pictures, and iMovies. It contains lessons that challenge the students to think about and draw conclusions to the essential question, "How do people's choices lead to changes in their lives?" Thinking about this question in the context of the Pilgrims' lives (through research, Web Quest, and journaling) as well as their own ancestors (filling in a family tree chart), help students gain a better understanding of what life was like for families in the New World and compare it to their lives today.
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Debbie Collura
978-794-0153 x 283 |
Project Title: Natural Disasters Unit
Project Overview:
This is a grade 7 interdisciplinary, technology integrated unit that focuses on Natural Disasters. The unit is built upon the understanding that students develop strategies and skills for learning when lessons are purposeful. Using the research model allows students to generate his/her own questions and initiate a plan for locating information about natural disasters. Science and math content allow students the opportunity to present and explain data and findings using multiple representations integrating technology tools: graphs, tables, mathematical and physical models and demonstrations. Students are expected to draw conclusions based on data or evidence presented in tables or graphs and make inferences based on patterns or trends in the data. This grade 7 team will create this unit using VES online tools with their students.
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Jane Potsaid
978-794-1711 |
Project Title: How Do People Form Their Beliefs?
Project Overview:
The project is a wequest based on the Essential Question "How Do People Form Their Beliefs?" Students generate questions on a controversial topic and then research sites for pros and cons of an issue. They use critical thinking to analyze issues, and then write a paper and conduct a discussion based on their issue. The process includes mapping using inspiration, conducting an interview, and filling in a plus/minus/interesting chart for each site. The goals are to help students become familiar with using the internet, to realize there are strong reasons on both sides of issues, and to make a decision based on their research.
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Michael Kovacevich
508-643-2130 x1128 |
Project Title: Tri-First Jobs
Project Overview:
"Stepping Up to Emotional Wellness" and its website, Steppinup.com, will be enhanced by the addition of two new components. The first will the creation of "Tri-FirstJobs.com". The website will be a free, tri-county area job listing service website which will list entry and mid-level jobs drawing students and young adults ages fifteen to twenty five. When they come to the site they will find a vast clearinghouse of reviewed links to information on career development, personal awareness, interest inventories, occupational exploration opportunities and much more. The second enhancement to the steppinup.com project will be the development of a career video library for use over the North Attleborough Middle Schools closed circuit television, the local district cable access educational channel, and on request by teachers and students in classrooms through an intranet. Steppinup.com members will form a video production team utilizing existing, and grant enhanced resources at the North Attleborough Middle School closed circuit television studio known as Channel 70.
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Paul Jutras
508-695-3244 |
Project Title: Extending the TAPE: Technologically Advanced Physics Education
Project Overview:
The underlying goal of this grant is to further enhance the physics curriculum at North Attleborough High School through the use of the most current technology. Incorporation of technology as a teaching and learning tool into Strand 3 of the State Frameworks (Physics for a Full-Year Course), Core Standards 1-Motion and Force, 2-Conservation of Energy and Momentum, and 3-Heat and Heat Transfer, was begun this past school year (2000-2001). This was made possible through the obtainment of the D.O.E. Grant entitled Project T.A.P.E. (Technologically Advanced Physics Education). Obtainment of a Lighthouse Grant will allow for the expansion of technology into Core Standards 4-Waves, 5-Electromagnetism, and 6-Electromagnetic Radiation. In addition, the technology associated with this grant is being incorporated into the current grade integrated science program, Fundamentals of Science and Technology (FST). This curriculum touches students of all abilities including special needs and inclusion students. The physics curriculum continues to receive district support through the funding of a two-week summer workshop for further physics/technology curriculum development and a fairly generous departmental budget.
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Marcia O'Neil
978 664-9557 |
Project Title: Mystery Workers and Job Detectives: A First Grade Email Project
Project Overview:
Mystery Workers and Job Detectives - A First Grade Email Project brings the world of work to a class of beginning readers and writers. Frameworks addressed are English/Language Arts (Language Strand) and History and Social Science (Economics Strand). Students receive email clues from different North Reading community workers. Through informal and formal discussions, first graders consider, deduce, and support their way of looking at clues about the world of work. Combining pen and pencil, as well as KidPix and Inspiration software, students produce lists, webs, artwork, and written responses to their investigations about the varied jobs of people working alone or in groups. Students create a "Valuable Worker" award based on their research and discussions. A classroom "Worker Wall" archives the products of their investigations with clear evidence of developing student literacy and thoughtful investigations into the world of work.
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Glenn Tarpinian
978-762-0001 |
Project Title: The Ipswich River Watch Monitoring Project
Project Overview:
The Ipswich River Watch Monitoring Project is a Biological Science/Natural Science content area project for students in grades 9-12. The project in this Lighthouse grant is a water quality-monitoring program in coordination with the Ipswich River Watershed Association. We are monitoring the "life" of the Ipswich River. Our data collection efforts establish baseline indicators in order to identify and begin to remediate water quality and quantity impairments. We will "adopt" a section of the Ipswich River in order to perform water quality tests. The data will be collected and sent to the appropriate state agencies through their website. The results of our data, along with that collected by the other volunteer stations, will identify pollution sources, water quality trends, and promote stewardship of the river. This project uses the full complement of VernierPro water quality testing equipment, computer software which tracks longitudinal data, handheld portable devices for measuring data on-site, and the computer hardware necessary for internet up and downloads to the Ipswich River Watershed Association.
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Lorrie Langille
508-234-0800 x207 |
Project Title: Northbridge Middle School T.E.A.M.S. (Technology/Engineering at Middle School)
Project Overview:
The Northbridge Middle School is very committed to Technology/Engineering and has a state-of-the-art program for all students in grades 6-8. A Technology/Engineering program was also piloted with eight 5th grade students. This grant seeks to expand upon these pilots by developing similar activities with all 5th grade students to fully implement the standards in Strand 4 (Technology/Engineering) of the new Frameworks. Students will work in cooperative groups and gain experience with all aspects of the Engineering Design Process along with an opportunity to hone analytical, conceptual thinking and problem solving skills.
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Rena Moore
413-253-3595 |
Project Title: Project Synergy: The Support for All Students through Inclusion and Assistive Technology
Project Overview:
Pelham School's Project Synergy brings together two best-practice models of special education - inclusion and assistive technology - in a unique combination that is more powerful than the sum of the two parts. The inclusion program brings special education teachers directly into the K-6 classrooms, working side-by-side with regular education teachers. Special education teachers assist all students who need additional support in all curriculum areas. Pelham's assistive technology program works in much the same way. Assistive technology is not limited to only students with specific disabilities. Instead, the assistive technology is made available to all students who need that support. This innovative combination of inclusion and assistive technology involves every classroom and special education teacher in the school and supports all areas of the curriculum. Students use AlphaSmart keyboards to explain their reasoning for math problems as required by the Math Frameworks. They use Write OutLoud to provide auditory feedback as they move through the writing process as described in the English Language Arts Frameworks. Concept mapping software (Inspiration) is used to plan social studies and science projects that provide for the project-centered, inquiry-based learning that supports the Massachusetts Learning Standards in both subjects. These are just a few examples of assistive technology supporting all areas of the curriculum. However, it is when Pelham combines this assistive technology with inclusion that synergy explodes in all classrooms and impacts student achievement for all.
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Mary Leyden
413-648-9356 |
Project Title: Opportunities for Independence
Project Overview:
The 2000 - 2001 Writer's Workshop project at Bernardston Elementary School has provided intensive instruction and mentoring support for both staff and fourth grade special needs students in the use of assistive technology for the purpose of achieving independence in written composition. A core team of five educators; a special education teacher, paraprofessionals, an occupational therapist and a technology integration teacher, collaborated to design a unit of practice that would define the best ways in which to instruct special needs students in the use of Cast E-Reader, Inspiration, CoWriter and Intellitalk II for the purpose of researching and writing a five paragraph composition. Participating educators then practiced their newly gained technology skills and teaching techniques with one special needs student while receiving continued technical and team support. Using this "Assistive Tech Writing Bundle" students learned to independently research and compose a five paragraph report on a topic related to their classroom curriculum. This first Writer's Workshop team of teachers and students has achieved independence in their use of the selected applications and is now ready to provide training and support to the next set of Writer's Workshop participants.
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Irene Vassos
413-499-9507 |
Project Title: Maintaining Current Health Data! Relational Files to Manage School Health Services
Project Overview:
The School District has developed a set of relational database "tools" or files for Health Services to help manage student health records that can be shared with other school districts. The files include modules for tracking immunizations, physicals, logs for visits to health centers, allergies and medical alerts, statistical summaries, etc. The files have been developed in FileMaker Pro, are cross platform, and the system is completely menu driven. We feel strongly that districts should support each other to reduce increased administrative and instructional software costs. By disseminating our work to other districts we will improve its capabilities and design. Districts will benefit, and services to students will be enhanced.
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last updated: January 1, 2002
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