MassCUE Initiative Grants
2007-2008
“Promoting Global Understanding
With Information and Communications Technology”
MassCUE will fund the following member’s grants up to 750 dollars for their innovative proposals, which reflect the goals of the grant and support the mission of MassCUE.
On behalf of MassCUE's Grants Committee, we want to thank all of you for taking the time to prepare a proposal. Congratulations to the grant recipients. In order to receive the $750.00, please send an itemized Grants Reimbursement Form (attachment), along with the original receipts, for purchases made with the grant money. Make copies for your records. We will be contacting you sometime in April for a progress check. We look forward to hearing about your experiences. Remember that much benefit can be gained from sharing your pitfalls as well as your successes.
Name: Cochrane, Donna
School: North Attleborough High School
District: North Attleborough, MA
TITLE: Buds, Leaves and Global Warming
Summary: Students will participate in the “Buds, Leaves, and Global Warming” study by measuring and tracking bud burst in the spring. Students will flag nearby trees for research, and map the research site. Students will learn measurement and data collecting techniques to begin the project. Students will provide data to Harvard LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) Schoolyard Program. Data will be posted on the Harvard Forest Website. When doing this project annually (and adding the autumn protocol), students will begin to see how a changing climate may affect the length of the growing season in their local area and how their local area compares with other areas. Students will create and present a PowerPoint analysis of their data and compare it to data from Franklin County Technical School in Turner Falls, MA and Tewksbury Memorial High School in Tewksbury, MA.
Name: Crowe, Dr. N. Tracy
School: Departmet of Educatiion-Special Education in Institutional Settings
District: EDCO Collaborative
TITLE: Using iPods to Promote Reading Fluency in Special Education
Summary: This proposal focuses on a population of students who are often forgotten and overlooked - special education students in institutional settings. Special Education in Institutional Settings (SEIS) serves special education students who are receiving educational services in the Departments of Mental Health, Youth Services, and Public Health and employs over 100 teachers. The target populations are from two residential programs run by the Commonwealth-Department of Mental Health (DMH) and Department of Youth Services (DYS). Specifically, since many of the students served in DYS lack basic reading skills, this proposed pilot program will focus on improving reading fluency/comprehension/communication for special education students who are in the custody of DYS by utilizing iPods and Griffin iTalk microphones.
Name: Gassner Kim
School: Amvet Boulevard Elementary School
District: North Attleborough, MA
TITLE: Amvet Online: Enhancing Student Writing with Podcasts
Summary: Digital storytelling through podcasting allows students to craft a unique expression of their ideas using spoken, written, and visual language. A podcast is an mp3 file that can be played on a CD player, computer, or portable audio device. When paired with visuals, an audiocast offers a rich media presentation that then can be shared with a large audience of listeners. Podcasting is a powerful creative outlet and communication tool for all students, especially those who struggle with writing. For this project, students will publish podcasts during their Writer’s Workshop to represent three different genres of writing: “All About” books, poetry, and realistic fiction. Their podcasts will be published on our classroom webpage, where they will be shared with other students, families, the community and the world.
Name: Rao, Shuchita
School: Medfield Secondary Public Schools
District: Medfield, MA
TITLE: Integrating Technology with Medfield Schools Music Department Curriculum
Summary: Medfield Public Schools have an award winning music department that has distinguished itself at district and state level competitions in jazz ensemble, string, orchestra and choir categories by winning gold and silver medals. While the instructors and students are highly skilled, their productivity is hindered due to gaps in technology infrastructure at the school. Due to the fact that the school does not have any portable audio recording equipment, class lectures, workshops, rehearsals and performances cannot be recorded. This gap poses as a hindrance in the school’s objective to enhance student learning and achievement and to share great performances for enjoyment by members of the larger community all over the world. The MASSCUE 07-08 technology grant will go a long way in reaching out to the 1,636 students at the Medfield secondary schools. The purchase of portable audio equipment will be primarily for the music departments at the two schools, but will also be made available to other academic departments in Medfield Public Schools for the purposes of integrating technology with the curriculum by recording lectures and creating podcasts.
Name: Sanderson, Lisa M.
School: Abbott School
District: Westford, MA
TITLE: Face the Music: Podcasting for Peer Reviews and Self Assessment
Summary: Playing for an audience is thrilling and motivating for musicians. This project capitalizes on this experience by integrating technology to facilitate peer feedback between ensembles in three elementary school buildings across the Westford School District. The fifth grade string orchestras at each school will prepare a common piece of music to be recorded in GarageBand and shared via podcast for anonymous peer review by all ensembles. Students will use this feedback to improve their performance. This progress will be reflected in a final musical podcast.
Name: Schneider, Jason
School: Greenfield Middle School
District: Greenfield, MA
TITLE: What’s Going on Out There? Bringing Social Studies Alive!
Summary: Social Studies and Geography, according to tradition, are considered to be boring. However, we can easily make Social Studies exciting by making world issues immediately relevant to our students. The Department of Education Grade Six Social Studies standards state that, “Sixth graders systematically study the world outside of the United States and North America by [exploring] political and physical geography and embed five major concepts: location, place, human interaction with the environment, movement, and regions.” An LCD projector, which we hope to purchase with MassCUE funds, would move our classroom beyond the textbook into the living world and would be a tremendously powerful tool for further accomplishing our mission of global exploration and understanding. The projector would transform our classrooms by showing real people, in real time, as they react to and shape world events. Utilizing the full power of the web, with students, would allow us to access the world of immediate communication via nations’ and travel websites, travelers’ blogs, CNN Student News, network newscasts, National Geographic’s web sites and using the almost limitless web resources. Next, through personal digital photography, I could use the projector to share my own travels around the world. Third, we could present the bulk of “regular” lessons digitally, and eventually have students teach lessons by developing their own digital presentations. Finally, the Greenfield Public School district has access to technology that would allow live conversations with students in other parts of the world. We hope to be able to link this technology for contemporaneous cross-world student contact and conversation.
Name: Shapiro, Maddy/Leary, Cindy
School: Heights Elementary School
District: Sharon, MA
TITLE: Cultural Universals: Mesoamerican Podcast Project
Summary: Students of the 21st century hold a unique place in educational history. Their ability to achieve success in life and work requires mastery of new skills that rely upon increased collaboration, communication, use of networked technology, and an understanding and appreciation of the global community in which they live. The challenge of the 21st century teacher is to interweave the curriculum frameworks with the skills required for global success. The Mesoamerican Podcast Project seeks to integrate 21st century skills into the Massachusetts Social Studies frameworks. Students create an engaging collaborative podcast revealing their knowledge and understanding of the Mesoamerican cultural universals of Beliefs, Arts, Time and Place, and Government. The Massachusetts Social Studies curriculum frameworks learning standard (5.2) for Grade 5 require students to: Identify the three major pre-Columbian civilizations that existed in Central and South America (Maya, Aztec, and Inca) and their locations. Describe their political structures, religious practices, and use of slaves. The Mesoamerican Podcast Project allows students to communicate their comprehension of the learning standards through an innovative format that requires the acquisition of new technology skills. The project is implemented in five distinct phases.
