1. Link to our CyberFair 97 Entry
Link to our School Home Page
2. Date of Project: March, 8, 1997
3. School: L. R. Green School
District: Escondido Union School District
City: Escondido, California, USA
4. Teachers or Classes: 2
Mrs. Berhman: 3rd Grade
Mrs. Hayden: Grade 7-8 Technology Elective
5. How many students worked on this project? 40
Their ages were: 8-12 years of age
6. Project Contact Email: khayden@sdcoe.k12.ca.us
Historical Landmarks
Description of "Our Community"
The community of Escondido is
located 15 miles inland from the Pacific Coast of California in the
Northeastern part of San Diego County. It is surrounded by both
urban and rural areas. Escondido means
"hidden" but has long
been a popular location for people to live
due to climate, wealth of resources, and location. Historical sites bring
visitors yearly to tour and visit historical landmarks such as Grape Day
Park, Felicita Park, and San Pasqual Battlefield. Escondido's latitude
is 33 degrees North and its longitude is 7 degrees West. Our
city consists of 35.6 square. miles. It's elevation is 684 feet. The
total population of Escondido is125,000 people. Our ethnically diverse
population includes 77% Anglo, 21% Hispanic, 3% Asian, 1% Black, 1%
Native
American, and less than 1% Pacific Islands.
Summary of Our Project
California third grade social studies curriculum focuses on
studying local community. L. R. Green teachers have included field trips,
interviews
with local experts, and research on Escondido history as key parts of
their classroom activities. The curriculum is further enhanced by the use
of technology. This provides students the opportunity to share their
learning and use creativity in their projects. Multimedia Mentor Students
(M
& Ms) from a 7th and 8th grade Technology Elective Class act as
facilitators in all classrooms K-8. Mrs. Berhman's third grade class
worked with the M&M students to gather information, develop a web page
about historical sites in
our community, and publish it on the Internet. Interviews, pictures, and
writings were done by third graders and the M & Ms planned and
developed the web page using a variety of resources. Both classes have
worked hard to bring this information to the global community. Over the
past two years, Mrs. Berhman's third grade classes have created
historical multimedia projects using HyperStudio. Now, by publishing on
the Internet, this historical information can be shared with everyone in
the world! These students united with community experts to document our
community and make learning more meaningful.
Our Internet Access
L. R. Green School, was awarded a State Technology Grant in 1995 to
become a model school for use of the Internet in curricular areas. This
"
Building the Future" grant included wiring and hardware in
order to bring the Internet and email into the classrooms and computer
lab for grades 6-8, as well as the school library. The connection via a
56 KB Frame Relay line also provides a local area network within this
school environment. Our Internet connection and email accounts are
provided by the San Diego County Office of Education. Our district
provides the connection through a WAN as well
as resources such as a server for hosting our school web pages. All other
classrooms in our school have the opportunity to access Internet and
email
using classroom modems and County or America Online connections.
Problems We Had To Overcome
The biggest
problem to overcome in completing this project was time.
The teachers involved met before and after school on a regular basis in
order to plan and share progress. The 7-8th grade technology elective
class
was limited to one 50 miniute period per day. Students came in before
school
and worked extra time whenever possible. Due to the fact that our school
is on year-round scheduling, there were times when one or the other of
the
collaborating classes were off-track. Students and teachers met
during off-track time in order to continue the project. Creativity in
matching schedules between grade levels in elementary and middle school
allowed us to meet whenever necessary. Field trips required special
authorization and planning in order to include 3rd, 7th and 8th grade
students on different tracks. Technical problems included using equipment
in other classrooms when our equipment broke down. For instance, the
scanner broke down and access was provided by a 5th grade teacher next
door. Equipment in the 3rd grade classroom needed repair and other
classroom teachers allowed students to use their computer stations for
writing during parts of the school day.
Our Project Sound Bite
Linking students with the community, history, and curriculum in order
to reach out beyond the classroom walls was a powerful and rewarding
experience
for all. The community leaders expressed enthusiasm and appreciation for
this opportunity to share their knowledge of our rich cultural past with
a wider audience. This project brought together people of all ages that
took pride in their community and the project will continue to be updated
as more people become involved.
As stated in the
California State Framework (History/Social Science - 1988),
Major Topics of study in third grade focus on continuity and change with
emphasis on :
*Our local history: Discovering our past and traditions. "Third
graders can begin to think about continuity and change in their locality
and nation. By exploring their locality and locating some of the features
that were built by people who lived long ago children can make contact
with times past and with people whose activities have left their mark on
the land."
"Through studies of continuity and change
in their locality, children can begin to think about chronological
relationships and to analyze how some things change and others remain the
same. To understand changes occurring today, children should explore the
ways their locality continues to evolve.
Finally, teachers should introduce children to the great legacy of local,
regional and national traditions that provide common memories and a
shared
sense of peoplehood for all of us. " Through viewing and evaluating
other sites, students learn to compare and contrast their community with
other parts of the world.
In addition, our curricular goals were to enhance reading, writing,
listening,
and thinking skills across the curriculum with emphasis on critical and
creative thinking. This integration of content curriculum was achieved
through the reading information from a variety of sources, interviewing
local experts, and writing about what they learned. Students also
acquired new skills in the use of technology and using the Internet to
access information and share learning.
This project helped students to learn to work together as cross-age
partners within
our school (8th graders and 3rd graders), and with knowledgeable people
in our community. The result was a win-win situation for children and
community
organizations.
Two of the most important tools that we used were the computer and the
Internet.
We researched, visited sites, spoke with
experts in our community, wrote, revised, and rewrote. We printed out
work for our writing portfolios and saved information on disks so we
could put together information we had been gathering. We also reviewed
multimedia projects and reports from Mrs. Berhman's previous classes. We
used the Internet to find links to resources and looked at what others
had included in their web projects.
Other tools we used:
Telephone
School mini-lab" Multimedia Equipment
Escondido Public Library
Historical research at Pioneer Historical Room at local library.
Museums located at Felicita Park and Grape Day Park Heritage House
Interviews with experts at Historical Locations and the library
Classroom PowerMac
Computer Lab of 36 Macintosh computers and Multimedia Stations
Apple Scanner and HP Scanner
Apple QuickTake Digital Camera, and Kodak Digital Camera DC25
Display Monitors, VCR
35 mm Camera
Software we used:
Hyperstudio 3.0
ClarisWorks 4.0
Ofoto
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe PageMill
Netscape Navigator
As we put this project together the 8th grade students frequently
communicated
with the 3rd grade teacher and students to check on project progress.
They read student portfolio entries and decided which writings should be
included in the project. They reviewed local history along with the
3rd-graders as they accompanied them on visits to historical sites. Many
of these visits were after school and during off-track times (we are a
year-round site and 1/4 of our students
are off-track throughout the year). They called to arrange for speakers
to
come to our site for interviews and to give us background information.
Students
visited locations in the community on field trips which enhanced their
learning through first-hand contact. Community members and organizations
have been very helpful in providing resources and research information
through
interviews, slide presentations, and historical re-enactments, etc.
Eighth
grade students used email to communicate with people in other states to
ask questions as they designed the web pages. They were responsible for
planning, creating,
checking due dates and requirements for the Cyberfair Contest. The
community experts came
to view the web pages and discuss details with the students regarding
written information and accuracy. It was a delight to see the excitement
of the experts about what the students were learning and the valuable
resource created for our community.
Escondido Historical Landmarks project was created to link students with
the community, history, and curriculum. It has brought the community
closer to the educational process. It has allowed different parts of our
community
to have a historical meeting ground. It allowed students to create a
learning
partnership with mentors in our community. It has provided us with a tool
to bring together information in one place that did not exist before. It
has allowed us to realize that our community has an interesting history,
that should be documented for all people to appreciate. It has helped us
to relate information in our Social Studies textbook with our community.
The
project has provided a way to collect historical information and present
it in a usable format for students as well as interested community
members.
It has allowed us to establish new relationships with key people in the
community. It provided a way to document and preserve information about
our local past. We will invite parents, other 3rd-grade classes, and
others in the community to see our work. This project allowed students to
provide a valuable service to the Escondido community. Students and
teachers will present this project at meetings and conferences in the
near future. The Escondido City Hall has already linked our Project Site
to their Home Page.
Our project involved members of our community at each of the historical
sites: Norm Syler, Director of the Escondido Historical Society, along
with
Alice Bartley, and Marie Tuck were valuable sources of information. Mr.
Syler gave us a slide presentation about Escondido history and told
stories
about key historical figures. Alice Bartley and Marie Tuck served as
docents at Heritage Park and made our visit meaningful. Marla Barlow and
the staff at Felicita Park were very helpful sources in sharing
information about the early Indian inhabitants of this area. Ms. Barlow's
tour of
the Felicita Museum and highlights in the park made history come alive
for students. Betty Beach and the other members of the San Pasqual
Battlefield Volunteers Association were extremely generous with their
time in arranging to talk with students and set up a date for them to
visit the site.
Special thanks also go to:
Bill Simpson, Escondido Union School District Director of Technology for
his support in the use of technology in curriculum. The administrators at
our school have provided support by allowing teachers the flexibility to
use innovative teaching techniques, modified scheduling, and special
learning opportunities to enhance the curriculum through the use of
technology.
Frank Maggi, 5th grade teacher, Brad Pascoe, 2nd-3rd grade teacher, and
Robert Fisher, School Computer Technician, provided technology support
and assistance during the project. Parent volunteers like Karen Peterson
(parent of 8th grader) gave their support throughout and their service
was critical to our success.
The students involved with with project found that learning can be fun.
The 7th and 8th graders were surprisingly excited about going on a field
trip with younger students. We were amazed that the 8th grade students
could learn the web page programming so fast and that they were anxious
to get started each morning.
The most important discovery was that the community also can get
really excited about creating a web project. They were so impressed with
the students capabilities in following through with this project.
Lessons learned include: There are a lot of resources available and
people willing to help, if you just set our exploring the possibilities.
When you plan a meaningful project, others will join in to help you be
successful. The finishing touches to projects take more time than you
think. Parents are supportive when they see meaningful learning and
creative projects.