A total of 143 Packets are now available for use in your classroom. Each Packet has been linked to Maine’s Learning Results and includes a detailed description of how the Unit of Study/Learning Activity was implemented. The Packets span all content areas and grade levels.
The Packets are available in PDF format. (To view a PDF file you’ll need the FREE Adobe Acrobat reader.) The snapshot descriptions of these packets are searchable using the search field at the top left of this window. Please make sure that Site is checked in the search options and you need to use the advanced search to get anything to show up.
Snapshot
High school art students blend art, photography and technology to create personal portraits that include a prop of the subject’s choosing. Using a digital camera the students take the portraits and then manipulate the images into black and white photos and line drawings using Adobe Photo Deluxe. Using the digital images created, the students create pencil portrait drawings. The technology provides students the “clarifying vision” that normally takes artists years to develop.
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Animals attract children of all ages. Their distinctive size, shape, and other characteristics appeal to developing scientists. In this unit of study, students become experts on an animal found in, above, or around Africa. Using both print and electronic data, the students produce web pages displaying their information which include charts of information, a picture of the particular animal from the Internet, a link to the source of the picture, and a citation of sources.
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Youngsters garden their way to understanding in this unit designed to build observation, charting and number skills. Nurturing their plants from seed, the students chart the growth of marigolds in both inches and centimeters for fourteen or more weeks, using the collected data to create a computer generated bar graph. Control plants are also raised in a variety of conditions to help students learn the conditions for optimum growth. The work culminates with a written report.
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Fun and learning erupt simultaneously in this set of learning activities. Young children assemble rock collections, explore the web for experiments and great pictures, and go on a virtual field trip. Students enjoy going outside to collect samples, get dirty, and “mess around with stuff,” along with using computers. Many of the needed supplies can be found outside the window or in one’s household, adding to this unit’s attraction.
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The naturalist art of Andy Goldsworthy serves as the inspiration for this unit of study. It encourages students to create sculptures using only what is available outdoors without leaving negative effects to the natural environment. All materials must be native to the woods then replaced after the sculptures are digitally photographed. Students apply previously learned principles of contrast, symmetrical balance, color and value to create the sculptures. The color photographs of the sculptures are compiled in a class book and displayed for critique.
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Throughout history students have complained that “History is boring, why do we have to read about dead people?” In this unit, students have an opportunity to make our country’s history interesting through a multi-media presentation that is educational, interesting, and definitely NOT boring. History Alive creates a Digital Documentary Resource from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War. The resource includes text, visuals, video, and music. This integrated unit of study is a journey in research, history, and creativity using Hyperstudio.
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Students learn how temperature, air pressure and moisture interact to cause changes in the weather by using instruments in the classroom to record weather data. The students also collect data including meteograms, weather maps, showing fronts, isobars and radar, as well as satellite images using the wealth of data from AMS “Datastreme”. The collected data is used to create a “weather wall”. Students analyze daily changes and learn how to forecast weather. Students learn about satellites, and through remote sensing are able to see the results of local and global interactions between the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere, which instill the excitement of real world events. Students analyze the impact of remote sensing technologies on society.
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Students use their imagination to invent a contraption and design a multimedia ad campaign to promote it in this three- week unit. To better understand and have a greater appreciation for the inventive process, students research inventors, their inventions, and aspire to become inventors of the future. Using digital cameras, the Internet, and Corel Word Perfect, students create a digital layout of their invention experience, a commercial, a brochure, and a magazine ad using different advertising techniques. This allows students to use technology to communicate what they’ve learned from the inventive process.
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A website with information and images is the culmination of this study of other countries and how they compare to the United States. Using a variety of media, including books, the Internet and CDs, student groups research a country, create a written report, develop their websites, create posters, make recipes and dress in native costume for a presentation of their findings at an evening Celebration of Learning.
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Still images and audio combine to create mood, meaning and message in this learning activity. Pairs of students created an iMovie using stills from a variety of sources along with audio clips from CDs. The students then present their work to their class explaining the relationship between the visual and audio components and the entire class critiques the work using designated vocabulary terms. Students are also assessed on the designated terms.
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How can I convince a tourist to visit my country? That’s what students learn to do in this interdisciplinary unit that focuses on a European country of their choice. Working alone or in small groups, students research their chosen country using a variety of sources including the Internet, electronic encyclopedias and other reference materials. They then create persuasive presentations for parents, students and teachers with scoring and comments provided by teachers and parents.
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Students bring conversational French to a half-hour long video postcard depicting their lives in Maine. Students write and perform skits of their favorite activities in French, and discuss snacks and styles of dress and music. The video is sent to schools in France along with a box of gifts representative of Maine and is intended to foster the creation of pen pals with French students.
Snapshot
Students learn the science of site design and building in this course, which simulates the work required to design a new high school. Through a combination of work in the field including mapping, soil testing, surveying and graphing and laboratory work to analyze and interpret the collected data, the students solve a “real-life” design challenge. Plans developed include topology changes, drainage systems, erosion control, access routes and parking all of which are included in a blueprint design. The plans are then supported with written conclusions and a presentation.
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In this unit of study students use the Internet for research on rural Maine in the 1850’s, and then experience traveling back in time on a field trip to the Norlands Living History Center. Here they assume roles from this time period to experience the life of Mainers more than 150 years ago. Following the trip students cooperatively write a stage play about their experiences. Teachers also attend a writing workshop to help facilitate their students’ activities.
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What if Picasso painted volcanoes? Using the cubist style of drawing and painting pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, students use AppleWorks Draw to create their own cubist- style drawing. Designed to expose the students to a different artistic style and to develop artistic skills in a technology medium, the resulting creations of the students are converted to GIF images, placed on a web page and then uploaded to the Internet.
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Building on work with the Gaia Crossroads Project, a student- drawn map of the playground leads to a wider study of land use. Starting with the playground map, students engage in a series of experiences, culminating in the use of a Landsat image to create a digital land use map of their neighborhood. Students complete this map by using a draw program and KidPix to draw and label roads and town landmarks, including the student’s home. This digital map is transferred to a T-shirt and depicts the student’s neighborhood from space.
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Explore the universe via the Internet. This Universe WebQuest builds online research and information collection skills. Drawing on the data, photos and real-time video collected, students create their own online media including reports, diagrams and animation to demonstrate their mastery of the targeted Learning Results. Completed projects are shared via oral reports with other students, and on-line with parents and the general public through the class web site.
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Local artists and historians become the teachers in this unit which fosters pride in the art and culture of the rural Maine community. Students interview the artists and historians and research background information about the people and community, compiling their findings in a newspaper article and a student created stage play. The play is performed in front of their peers and the community and challenges the students to express creatively the knowledge they gained.
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Does the idea of twenty young children simultaneously experimenting with rubber balls, steel balls and ping pong balls seem daunting? Are you looking for a way to encourage scientific process skills? The addition of 'Kidspiration' software to a unit of study on the properties of solids adds focus and ease of recording to student designed inquiries. A digital camera captures experimentation and students present their findings at a Scientists' Convention using technology to better support, illustrate and explain their results.
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How can we teach rural Maine children about world cities? This WebQuest is a research project in which students learn about the people, culture, environment and location of twelve of the world’s largest cities. Students can view a web page showing pictures of the cities’ holidays, landmarks, food, clothing and animals, then chose one city to learn more about. Students use the Internet to research more details of life in their chosen city, culminating in the design of a postcard using KidPix, which is uploaded to the classroom web page.
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In this service learning program students learn music concepts and performance skills and then stage a performance at a nursing facility. The unit begins with a review of the foundation of music reading. It progresses sequentially to final lessons that use a higher process. The music lessons integrate math, language arts, social studies, and technology. The unit has four technological products. At the end of the unit, students interpret a piece of music and communicate their ideas and feelings by performing the music on a soprano recorder. After the nursing facility concert, the students visit the residents, share refreshments, and celebrate the performance.
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Ecology through the eyes of eighty-five middle schoolers. That’s the result of this schoolwide unit of study that focuses on major ecology concepts such as life cycle, classification, habitats, and human impact, including a study of endangered and threatened species in Maine. Student reports are collected in a multimedia CD-ROM highlighted by original works of art, video and text with hyperlinks included to connect discrete knowledge to broad concepts.
Fading Footprints was collaboratively designed and taught by the following teachers: Scott Comstock, Ellen Norton, Nancy Germani, Kirsten Platt, Kelley McDaniels, Ann Marie Wolfe, Bill Lundgren, Bob Kamman, and David Grant.
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How does Sophocles’ Antigone provide relevance in today’s world? This unit focuses on Antigone’s dilemma of having to transgress civil law in order to give her brother a proper religious burial. Through a WebQuest, students research ancient burial customs to see why this was so important to Antigone. Then, through discussions of current social issues, students develop an understanding of the risks involved in taking a stand. They also research twentieth century people who faced the dilemma of taking risks in order to follow what they believed.
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Students study performers and composers from different periods and develop a multimedia presentation that synthesizes music, original artwork and the student’s oral presentation. Research for the project includes class discussions, information packets gathered from a variety of electronic and print sources. Students compile the music of their subject, pictures, text, voice recordings and original artwork using HyperStudio. The finished piece also contains a quiz and a listing of sources.
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What are the ten things that best represent Maine? Young children show “pen” pals in another state their answers via a live Internet video webcast. After brainstorming and searching the web for their topics, students enlist the help of their parents to find Maine resources for their top ten choices. The class read books, visit web sites and invite guest lecturers to talk about the life cycles of salmon and lobsters. The class writes reports about their chosen topic, all of which are used for the Internet broadcast.
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