TIPS Volume 3, No.9
May, 2003

     Grade Level Key 
     = Elem, = Middle
     = High, = Teachers

Dr. Christensen's kindergarten class at Meadowthorpe Elementary is studying farm animals. During computer lab time and on the computers in their room, they took a "virtual tour" to explore a farm and learn about the animals. On the trip, they saw horses, cows, chickens, baby chicks, sheep, lambs, ducks, and geese.

After exploring the farm, students did this Kidspiration activity to separate animals that belong on a farm from those that don't belong.

 Civil War Museum

5th grade students at Linlee Elementary researched various aspects of the civil war and then created an online museum. The students researched on the internet using a web page I created with Civil War links, then spent two days in the computer lab creating their "room" of the museum. I walked them through how to use FrontPage and then their teacher (Mrs. Grigsby) and I combined all of the pages and posted them on her website. The following day, the students presented their page to the rest of the class and the teacher scored them based on a rubric she had created. Click here to see the site.

3rd Graders are Geographically Inspired at The Academy

Mr. Beers’ third grade class at The Academy at Lexington has spent the last several weeks studying geography and maps of the United States. To complement their studies they have been using the Tom Snyder software, National Inspirer.

For those not familiar with the software, National Inspirer is designed to be used in a one-computer classroom. It encourages higher level thinking and cooperative group work while reinforcing geography skills by having students plan trips around the United States based on the major resources produced in each state. Students work in small groups to plan a trip that consists of 10 moves. Each group is given a state to start in, and one or two resources for which they must look. A legal move requires traveling from one state to a bordering state.

To introduce the software, Mr. Beers’ class first planned a trip together as a whole class activity. This allowed the students to become familiar with how the program works. Then a couple of weeks later, they returned to the software, but this time they worked in cooperative groups. Each group had a starting location and one resource. Using maps included with the program, they each planned a 10-move trip. As each team finished planning their trip, they came to the computer to enter their trip to see how many points they had earned and to find out their next assignment. 

The students were completely engaged in the activity, and begged to keep playing at the end of the period. This was a great way to reinforce what they had been learning while giving the students the chance to improve their cooperative group skills!

The eighth grade students at Tates Creek Middle School are spending most of the month of April taking a look at life in the real world as part of their ACE classes. They are studying careers and economics in an effort to see the big picture of life after high school. All the 8th grade students are participating in a Career Day and the Reality Store, which challenges the students to plan a budget based on an assigned career and family.

As part of this unit, the students have also been utilizing some of the many career and economics resources available online. One specific activity that each 8th grader will complete is an online lesson in budget planning by traveling to the Planet of Knab. This online interactive lesson, entitled Escape from Knab http://www.escapefromknab.com/ begins with students traveling to Knab and finding that the only way back to Earth is to earn $10,000 by July 4 to buy a ticket home. The lesson leads students through 6 months of life in Knab, beginning in January. Students must first choose where they will work and fill out tax forms. Later they must make decisions about where to live, how much to spend on food and supplies, whether to buy or lease a car, and investments to make. All of these decisions impact whether or not they will earn the necessary $10,000.