Projects 2002-03

We completed many projects this year. Some were viewed only within our classrooms and schools and others were posted on our school web page. What are some of the projects you might find on our website for 2002-2003? The following chart contains a link to some of these projects and you will also find a description of some of our completed projects below this chart.

Grade One: PowerPoint-Transportation, Basic Needs, Quilt Patterns

Grade Two: PowerPoint-Electronic Portfolios, Needs of Long Ago, Pioneers

Grade Three: PowerPoint-China: Land of the Rising Sun, Animal Research HyperStudio-My Community, Web Page-Community Places Across Canada

Grade Four: If you Haven't Experienced War, Connecting Countries with a Cookbook, Grade Four Animal Research

Grade Five: A Novel Approach to War, Winter Stories for Grade 1

Grade Six: Selling a Planet PowerPoints, Heritage Fair Projects, Alien

Grade Seven: Completion of Grade 7 Math Lab for TLE, Friendship Stories, Heritage Fair

Grade Eight: Famous People, 20th Century"Isms", Stone Age Survival Skills

Grade Nine: Artifacts of Manitoba History, Shakespeare Festival

Library and Cross-Grade Groups: MYRCA , Kountries by Kalman, Artifact Box, MYRCA Buddies

What are some of the projects you might find on our website for 2002-2003? Grade Three are participating in a project called Community Places Across Canada . Schools from Tatla Lake, British Columbia, Victoria, British Columbia, Cochrane, Alberta, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and Kangiqsualujjuaq, Quebec are exchanging emails and photos about their communities. Pictures are worth a million words. Students are noting many similarities and differences. Playground fences keeping out the cougars in Tatla Lake, three hours of traveling to go to the dentist or the hospital, pet horses, snowmobiles parked outside the local store in Kangiqsualujjuaq are some of the differences noted! The similarities are numerous between the communities and all the students are thrilled to see their communities up on the web!

One of the grade 4 projects is called Connecting Countries with a Cookbook. Students are exchanging emails and recipes with schools in Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Japan, Spain as well as the United States specifically Louisiana and Tennessee. It can be seen at http://www.wsd1.org/sargentpark/Cookbook2002/connecting_countries.htm Students are learning about the countries from the students they are writing to as well as the traditional web sites and books. One recipe calls for Jumboo a plant from the Amazon region. Finland sent a recipe for Poor Knights, which is similar to our Canadian French Toast. In Sargent Park a very multi-cultural school the hardest decision was what to include on our Canadian web site as a Canadian recipe. Students suggestions ranged from rice and soya sauce to pizza to Philippine Lumpia. Watch for more projects on our school web site soon.

As part of the project we have just completed a second math lab in our school for TLE. Our math labs for Grade 7 & 8 each contain over 30 networked computers running The Learning Equation. The labs were made with free 486 computers from Computers for Schools and set up with tables purchased very inexpensively from the Thomas Sills Foundation. We are also making a school COW. The Computers on Wheels trolley will contain 30 laptops purchased for $75 each from Computers for Schools. We hope to network most of them by plugging into the school network or eventually incorporating some wireless technology. However they will be running on old fashioned plug in power as many of the batteries no longer work.

The grant money was also used to buy 2 digital cameras that take stills and mpeg video with sound that easily insert into PowerPoint and Front Page using a memory stick. The camera software allows the students to edit the clips and combine clips into larger mpegs. The cameras also take multi-frame pictures which save as animated gifs. The grade nines and grade fives enjoyed making claymations with the cameras. We also purchased several large screen 26” monitors to make it easier for students to present completed projects to their classmates.

More information about our NIS project is displayed on our school web site. However if you have a professional development day and would like to visit our Nursery to Grade 9 school please email me and we can set up a day for you to visit. K. Routhier

The NIS website is also valuable for learning how innovative technologies are used in schools across Canada. The October 2002 issue of their e-zine showcases 2 students from Balmoral Hall who filmed and produced a 90 minute concert special, and a made for television one hour biography on one of the Guess Who members and information on an Alberta-based web site which offers a comprehensive strategy on plagiarism and research for the education community.

We are very excited to be a member of NIS and hope to share with other schools in Manitoba our experiences with integrating Information Technologies into the Curriculum in meaningful ways.