Technology Brings...
31/10/11 21:04 Filed in: technology
Technology Brings Field Trips to the Classroom
As schools struggle to make dwindling funds meet the needs of their students, some things must go. One of the first staples of education to get the axe is fieldtrips. Many corporations have cut back on trips beyond school grounds, and some have dropped them altogether.
If you can’t take your students to a location you’d like them to learn more about, the use of technology can help bring that experience to your classroom. Here’s one example:
After nearly three months of hard work, the 227 Indiana FIRST LEGO League (FLL) teams will begin competing on November 12. Teams seeking one of the 52 spots in the December 10 Indiana Championship Tournament at IU/Purdue Ft. Wayne will meet at nine sites around the state in regional qualifying tournaments. (Visit http://www.etcs.ipfw.edu/fll/index.php to find out where and when the nine regional tournaments will take place.)
FLL is much more than a robotics competition. Twenty-five percent of each team’s total score depends on the quality of its research presentation. This season’s project is based on food safety. Teams must choose a food and follow it from the ground, or birth, to the dinner table, carefully looking for ways to improve food safety. Bacteria are our enemies. Once a potential problem is identified, students must invent some product or process that will help make our food supply safer.
On October 24, SpaceLab ONE, an FLL team from Kokomo, learned about pork production from Mr. Craig Martin, a founder and former COO of one of the top-25 hog producing companies in the United States, M2P2 (Marketing and Managing Pork Production). M2P2 produces 1.3 million hogs per year in the U.S. and is working with farmers in China to help meet the protein needs of the huge Chinese population. M2P2’s facilities are so high-tech you have to shower and put on their germ-free clothing just to enter the hog building.
Mr. Martin used his company’s website and a Smart Board in the classroom to show photographs and video clips of his operation. Having an expert on the subject made the experience much better than just exploring a website. Many companies are agreeable, even eager, to send a representative into your classroom. The face-to-face interaction kept the kids engaged and allowed them to dig deeper into topics that interested them by asking questions. (The squishy pig toys he handed out didn’t hurt either!) –James McCarter
Mr. Craig Martin co-founder of M2P2 (Marketing and Managing Pork Production) speaks, using the Smart Board to share information from his company’s website.
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High-ability students from Sycamore Elementary in Kokomo listen as Mr. Martin describes M2P2’s hog production procedures.
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Blake carefully aims his FLL robot.
As schools struggle to make dwindling funds meet the needs of their students, some things must go. One of the first staples of education to get the axe is fieldtrips. Many corporations have cut back on trips beyond school grounds, and some have dropped them altogether.
If you can’t take your students to a location you’d like them to learn more about, the use of technology can help bring that experience to your classroom. Here’s one example:
After nearly three months of hard work, the 227 Indiana FIRST LEGO League (FLL) teams will begin competing on November 12. Teams seeking one of the 52 spots in the December 10 Indiana Championship Tournament at IU/Purdue Ft. Wayne will meet at nine sites around the state in regional qualifying tournaments. (Visit http://www.etcs.ipfw.edu/fll/index.php to find out where and when the nine regional tournaments will take place.)
FLL is much more than a robotics competition. Twenty-five percent of each team’s total score depends on the quality of its research presentation. This season’s project is based on food safety. Teams must choose a food and follow it from the ground, or birth, to the dinner table, carefully looking for ways to improve food safety. Bacteria are our enemies. Once a potential problem is identified, students must invent some product or process that will help make our food supply safer.
On October 24, SpaceLab ONE, an FLL team from Kokomo, learned about pork production from Mr. Craig Martin, a founder and former COO of one of the top-25 hog producing companies in the United States, M2P2 (Marketing and Managing Pork Production). M2P2 produces 1.3 million hogs per year in the U.S. and is working with farmers in China to help meet the protein needs of the huge Chinese population. M2P2’s facilities are so high-tech you have to shower and put on their germ-free clothing just to enter the hog building.
Mr. Martin used his company’s website and a Smart Board in the classroom to show photographs and video clips of his operation. Having an expert on the subject made the experience much better than just exploring a website. Many companies are agreeable, even eager, to send a representative into your classroom. The face-to-face interaction kept the kids engaged and allowed them to dig deeper into topics that interested them by asking questions. (The squishy pig toys he handed out didn’t hurt either!) –James McCarter
Mr. Craig Martin co-founder of M2P2 (Marketing and Managing Pork Production) speaks, using the Smart Board to share information from his company’s website.
Pasted Graphic
Pasted Graphic 1
High-ability students from Sycamore Elementary in Kokomo listen as Mr. Martin describes M2P2’s hog production procedures.
Pasted Graphic 2
Blake carefully aims his FLL robot.