2010 Qwest Foundation Teaching & Technology Grants
Caleb Kenison
Cheney Middle School, Cheney School District
An $80 million dollar capital bond project to build two state-of-the-art middle schools in Cheney Washington is about to bring an exciting 21st century learning project to life. Caleb Kenison’s 8th-graders will be working alongside architects, construction professionals, city and county officials, educators and the community to design the new schools. They will gather an enormous amount of measurement and survey data, learn about the complexity of a school structure and find out how permitting and environmental considerations shape the design of buildings.
Students will model their new schools with
3D renderings that
must undergo professional and community review. Kenison expects
his young building designers to build real-world expertise as
communicators, collaborators and members of project team with a
budget and deadline. Links to the student-produced videos of
this project on www.teachertube.com will be available when it’s
complete.
Said Cheney Middle School Principal Mike Stark, “A critical
component of the design and programs of our new schools is
student voice … This class will be an excellent way for
students to connect their learning in the classroom to a
real-world scenario. They will have access to the project
construction site and to the lead architect throughout the
design and construction phases. We are excited and hopeful
that the [Qwest] grant can make this dream a reality for our
students.”
Eric Miller
Eckstein Middle School, Seattle Public Schools
Social justice, the environment, energy and public health are
just four of the topics that Miller’s sixth-grade class will take on as
they work toward the learning goals outlined for their Heroes of Africa
project. Miller’s students will learn about Africa today through
research, data gathering, interviews, reflection and collaboration.
Following an in-depth analysis, they will design multimedia products
that interpret and communicate what they’ve learned about the continent,
and what they think will help to solve its societal, industrial and
environmental problems.
Miller teaches a full inclusion program: he will organize
students into heterogeneous teams that comprise those who are
academically strong as well as students who are struggling with
reading disabilities and those who are hearing impaired. He has
integrated several subject areas, including geography, history,
social studies, reading and writing, into a project that will
transform what his students understand about Africa, its past
and its place in the world today.
Miller would like his students to model their
approach on a real-world Web project called
Ushahidi, a Web site
mash up that publishes firsthand reports by people at the
center of civil strife and disaster. The site launched during
the post-election violence in Kenya in 2008 as people emailed or
texted information from the streets, which the site aggregated
instantly into an interactive map. “By leveraging the power of
mobile technology and the social Web, a small group spoke to the
entire world,” Miller said.
Corey Louviere and Janet Woodward
Garfield High School, Seattle Public Schools
An ambitious photo exhibit project will engage Louviere and Woodward’s classes in an exploration of the history and culture of Seattle’s Central Area. Garfield High School, built in 1922, is one of many historical landmarks whose providence depicts a long, community narrative they plan to research. Students will document the multi-cultural topography of the area, where six bus lines converge, and the rich diversity of its neighborhoods, commercial and community centers speak to the unique character of the area’s people and urban lifestyle.
In a series of field trips, students will photograph specific
scenes, take notes and interview residents. Each student will
select his or her best image for the exhibit and prepare
statements that interpret the photograph and its context.
Designed for peer review, project activities will have students
develop rubrics that evaluate the quality of the images and the
accompanying text, uploading their work and comments to a
communal Web site. The best 20 photographs will be curated for
public exhibit in museums, libraries and community centers and
shown with an accompanying catalogue.
Louviere and Woodward have integrated academic standards from
language arts, CTE subjects, the arts and media literacy. They
feel strongly about the value of an inquiry-based learning
project. In their application, the teachers wrote: “The goal of
this unit is to examine, identify and define authentic problems
and significant questions for investigation, and to plan
strategies that guide inquiry, construct meaning and communicate
information … [The project] incorporates instructional skill
modalities that use oral, verbal, written and tactile methods
for our diverse participants. Students…will engage in each
modality individually — collaborating and producing a final
piece by working at their own pace, learning from others and
meeting deadlines.”
Jerri Ann Patten
Kelso High School, Kelso School District
In a district where more than one third of high school
freshmen read below grade level, Patten has designed a learning project
to boost reading comprehension and critical thinking. Organizing her
students in reading teams with measurable goals, she will introduce
e-readers that make
it possible to mark-up text and look up words easily.
Working collaboratively, her students will establish an
academic network on Ning to
share literary observations and criticism but also as a space in
which students take on the persona of a book character and give
that character new life and expression.
The collaboration will encourage students to
connect deeply to the text, construct new
knowledge and take into account commonly felt
understandings of the author’s ideas. Ambitious
learning goals — analyze story elements,
determine the effectiveness of the book’s
literacy devices, evaluate books and authors to
share with others — parallel the challenging
21st century skills she will encourage in her
students: communication, collaboration,
innovation. At a reading fair, Patten’s students
will share their projects with the community.
Patten has designed a comprehensive assessment strategy. “The
written exams will measure comprehension but the blog entries
and answers to forum questions, inventories and their own
reflections should provide anecdotal evidence to evaluate the
effectiveness of the e-readers,” she said. “I expect a higher
percentage of students to read the required book and all
students to participate in the reading teams … I also hope that
students will self-determine that their reading comprehension
increased because they had ready access to vocabulary assistance
and a place to take notes electronically as they read.”
Christine Forslund
Kulshan Middle School, Bellingham School
District
A deep engagement with, and understanding of, scientific
concepts set the goals of a vigorous learning project designed
by a teacher who believes in connecting with what students
already know and helping to uncover the science behind their
ideas, observations and discoveries.
Forslund’s young scientists will learn how measure
abiotic
factors, such as light, pH, temperature and gas levels, and then
analyze how these non-living factors influence our environment.
She has integrated a wide range of the state’s standards for
science and technology in ways that provide a rich and diverse
series of challenging learning activities.
Students will start with a problem defined by authentic
conditions, conduct an investigation by collecting data and then
learn how to use that data to construct a basic understanding of
how abiotic elements behave. They will create reports that
describe the beginning inquiry and present results with
supporting evidence. As peers they will work through each
investigation to a viable solution. Forslund’s partnerships with
community-based educational programs — Nooksack Salmon
Enhancement Association, Re-Sources, Puget Sound Energy, Snow
Goose Marine Science — will bring her students out to the field
to expand their understanding through firsthand observation and
experience.
Forslund believes this project will be an important learning
experience to share with her colleagues.”I plan to meet
regularly with the Kulshan Science Department teachers to expand
their technical skill sets for collecting, recording and sharing
data,” she said. “Our plan is to vertically align lessons from
6th through 8th grade that will enable all students to integrate
technology to gather accurate data and organize data to make
models and valid interpretations.”
She is also an active member of the district technology team.
“Our task is to identify and select lessons where it makes sense
to include technology and align the experiences across content
areas and through grade levels.”
Debbie Blodgett-Goins
Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School, Yakima School
District
An in-depth study of Washington state is the framework for a
dynamic social studies project that integrates learning goals in
reading and science. Beginning with essential questions from the
state’s social studies classroom-based assessments and curricula
aligned to the learning objectives, Blodgett’s fourth-graders
will gather facts, artifacts, sources and evidence related to
topics of interest they choose themselves. They will pursue
inquiries such as describing how history impacts the world
today, describing how geography impacts our quality of life and
explaining ways citizens work together to make positive
differences in a community.
Students will compile digital compendiums of what they discover
(a change from the paper-in-a-shoe box compilations they have
today), blog about their findings and connect with outside
experts online. To demonstrate what they know and can do, each
student will produce a multimedia project that presents new
expertise.
Blodgett seeks to cultivate lifelong learners. “My vision is a
classroom engaged in challenging, authentic and intellectual
work, using technology in ways that powerfully advance
learning,” she said. “In this age, all people are faced with a
barrage of information that they must be able to locate,
synthesize and use … [They] can gather perspectives from
innumerable sources.” She believes that “every child should be
reaching out to the world beyond their own neighborhood and
school. By using technology effectively, ours will become a
classroom of 29 experts, not one teacher and 28 learners.”
Tony Kern
Moses Lake High School, Moses Lake School District
With the help of Moses Lake High School students, the Washington
State Bass Federation and the Department of Fish and Wildlife to
expand the declining fish population in Potholes Reservoir. At
this point in the project, students have built and submerged
hundreds of fish habitat boxes that enable a growing
fry
population to thrive. These young fish provide an adequate and
sustainable food source and, since their appearance, seem to
have had a beneficial effect on the fish in the reservoir.
However, no data exists that could verify this empirical
evidence.
That’s where Kern’s students come in. At the outset, he will
mobilize more than 200 students to handle the fish counts, and
gather critical data from GPS devices, aerial photos and
topographic maps. The class will use that data to create layered
GPS documentation for professional biologists. This aggregation
of data and its analysis will drive state-level decision-making
about the use and stewardship of the reservoir and has a direct
commercial benefit for the Moses Lake community. For Kern’s
students, these learning activities complete a real-world
project that many of them have been working throughout high
school.
Fully integrated with core CTE standards, Kern sees a rich
future for these kinds of projects. “There are many
opportunities for upcoming projects using the equipment,
training and software that the Qwest grant will provide,” he
said. “Some of the projects include tracking sand dune migration
in the Columbia Basin Wildlife Desert Unit, tracking noxious
weed migration on the upper Crab Creek drainage [area] and
studying bank erosion along Moses Lake…With the partnerships
that are being formed with the bass federation and Bureau of
Land Reclamation, the potential for expansion of this project or
starting new projects using GPS and GIS technology is
unlimited.”
Laurie A. McGovern
Pioneer Primary School, Pioneer School District
What is the relationship among animals, ecosystems and human
beings? McGovern’s third-graders are about to find out through a
learning project called “Eye on Hood Canal.” The project will
connect McGovern’s students directly to community-based
biologists, businesses and classroom peers.
McGovern’s partnerships with the University of Washington and
Taylor Shellfish have already transformed her classroom from the
limits of bricks-and-mortar to the endlessly diverse and
bountiful beaches of the Hood Canal waterway. Focused on state
learning standards in science, social studies, math,
communication and technology, students will record animal
behavior and identify tidal zone organisms; they will collect a
rich database of information about water quality, shellfish
counts, tide measurements and animal varieties.
Online journals will record their observation and ideas about
the ecosystem. Once they graph, analyze and interpret this new
knowledge, students will produce videos and podcasts that
demonstrate what they’ve learned and draw conclusions for
community action. We’ll be able to see these projects on the
school Web site, as will more of McGovern’s community partners —
businesses, organizations and other classrooms.
McGovern believes in the power of collaborative learning that
links students directly to the dynamics of the real world.
“Empowered by their explorations and technology use, my
third-graders will understand the usefulness of technology tools
in the real world,” she said. “As my students’ awareness and
knowledge grows, they too may become good stewards of the Hood
Canal Watershed and help preserve it for many years to come.”
Martha Lennier, Sara Schultz, Dana Persson-Zora and
Sheryl Woodruff
Stevens Elementary School, Aberdeen School District
Continuity and educational achievement are hard won at Stevens
Elementary where, by fourth grade, fewer than half of the
students have been enrolled since kindergarten and 86 percent
qualify as low income.
That doesn’t daunt a dedicated team of teachers who are
determined to level the playing field for these students with
academic achievement. This creative teaching team — Martha
Lennier, Sara Schultz, Dana Persson-Zora and Sheryl Woodruff —
have designed an inquiry-based project that asks an important
question for Stevens Elementary students and teachers: where
would be a good place to build a new school? Theirs is the only
school in the district that hasn’t been replaced or remodeled in
the last ten years.
Each grade-level will tackle a different element of the problem.
Sixth-graders will do the research, estimate square footage,
create surveys and gather data. Fifth-graders will take on the
environment impact and mitigation issues. Fourth-graders will
create a working map and figure out where to locate the new
buildings. And, an 8th-grade science class will mentor the field
research.
The team envisions a real-world learning experience that
leverages outside experts and the tools professionals use to
solve problems and communicate issues. In their application the
teachers wrote, “Effective technology usage must engage our
students in authentic, active learning, be cross-curricular,
give students opportunities to share work and have it evaluated
by others ... [We can] differentiate instruction thus addressing
ability levels, learning styles and, more importantly, the
interest areas of the learner.”
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