II-B. First-Year Research Projects
- McCleary Elementary School.
This site is the most fully-equipped of our first-year sites, with access
from all classrooms in the school. It is a restructured school, the first
in Pittsburgh. Network usage has focused upon administrative issues
and internal communication. The original curricular applications
planned for the school have been reworked by teachers as they have gained
first-hand experience with network resources. Two network-based
curricular units now in preparation
will deal with Arctic Life and with Food Preparation.
- Schenley High School.
This was the site where we tested the feasibility of using older
equipment in place at the school. A laboratory of 8088-based
computers was networked, and appropriate DOS-based software was
installed. Driven largely by the
dedication and careful planning of participating teachers, student
use was high, resource discovery was very effective, and the project
has stimulated interest throughout the school.
We expect activities at the school to expand into
the areas of technology, mathematics and science.
Students in the International Baccalaureate program
have used the Internet to correspond with
other students around the world in a targeted foreign language, and to
participate in international discussions.
This has given students a real audience for their foreign
language learning.
- Westinghouse High School.
The original premise for Internet activity in the Science and Math
(SAM) program at
Westinghouse [3] was to supplement an existing mentoring
program with electronic communication. At our summer workshop in
1993, teachers quickly found that their students could use the
Internet as a primary resource for their research work, and the
network activities of SAM have broadened considerably. A low
student/teacher ratio has facilitated student use of the network,
despite major delays with premise wiring at the site. Examples of
student research are now available via the ckp gopher. The effect
of CK:P has been to restructure [4] the entire SAM
program with
increased emphasis upon collaborative student activities.
- Woolslair Elementary Gifted Center.
Woolslair was set up as the beta test site and office location for
CK:P. It served to train the hundreds of teachers who were involved
in the internal competition described below. In addition, due to the
availability of equipment and expertise, the site has expanded to
include classroom use by students at the school. In
the sciences the Internet is being used to contact experts in the fields of
oceanography, space and physics, while in the humanities there are exchanges
between classes on topics of interest to young children.
The principal has adopted networking as a local goal for the
school and is working to expand the network to additional classrooms.
- Art and Library Projects.
These projects have stimulated interest in the use of graphical
resources on the network. The art project seeks to create an online
exhibit of artwork in the school district's extensive collection,
donated over a century by Friends of Art. This activity is now
being carried out by teachers and students at the high school for
the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA). CAPA was not originally planned
as a CK:P site, but it was decided to invest in connectivity
for the school and let students do the work of photographing and
archiving the collection, rather than contracting out for this work.
The successful application of networking technology in this area has
led us to expand plans for the original library project. Rather than
creating a simple text-based catalog, we now plan to include graphical
elements, either in the form of book jackets or student illustrations.
Here, too, we plan to have students participate in the work of putting
together the necessary elements to make this work.