HSD Videoconferencing

We are anxiously counting down the days until school begins for the 2010-2011 school year due to two new additions at Centerville and Landisville Middle Schools. Each of these schools is now equipped with a HD videoconferencing room. These rooms can be used in a variety of different ways including class presentations of student projects, staff development training, conferencing between middle schools for meetings or collaborative projects, and enabling our students to interact and collaborate with students across the world. We are very excited to begin using these rooms at both middle schools with the teachers and students.

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Very small, lots of eggs, 8 legs, doesn’t like leather furniture - could you figure out this animal? Mrs. Nancy Schnelli’s fourth grade class at LIC participated in Animal Quest on May 20. They spent two weeks preparing for the event by learning online searching techniques, how to work as a group to solve a mystery and research their chosen animal - a dust mite. On the day of the event the student groups figured out every animal that was presented by the participating schools - way to go!! Two of the four participating schools figured out our clues and guessed a dust mite correctly.

Mr. Guy Linebarger’s students in fourth grade recently completed two separate videoconferencing events with MAGPI. The first event was Where in PA. The LIC students created clues that they presented to other classrooms from around Pennsylvania about Lancaster. The goal of the event was to use the clues to figure out where the other classrooms were located in the state. Our students successfully figured out every location!!

The second event was Mystery Quest. Again most of the classrooms participating were from Pennsylvania but one class was from out of state. Each class selected a city and state somewhere in the United States to prepared clues for. Our students worked very hard and were able to figure out 3 of the 4 locations. For the last location we did have the state correct but not the town.  Mr. Linebarger’s students learned about videoconferencing, using good online searching techniques to figure out clues and geography.

Mr. Scott Podgurski’s fifth grade students participated in the Wild Weather Project run by Wichita Public Schools in Wichita, Kansas. The students collected weather data and created two videos about hazardous weathe conditions. Their videoconference event was held on May 19 with another fifth grade class from Wichita. The students exchanged their projects and then discussed weather conditions common to their area. The Kansas students were impressed with the amount of snowfall we had during the school year. Our students were surprised to hear how often the students in Kansas have tornado incidents and one student shared what it was like to go through a tornado.

On April 13th, Mountville Elementary second grade students had a chance to connect with two other schools in PA for a virtual storytime with Heather Weisse Walsh, Manager of Education Services for MAGPI. Students joined the conference for personification fun in reading Peter Brown’s book, The Curious Garden. The students learned how Liam nurtured a struggling, curious garden in a dark gray city into a lush green world. This program helped our students look at how Liam’s garden takes on human characteristics. Each participating school wrote and shared their own acrostic poem with everyone at the event. The students had fun interacting with Miss Heather especially during the interactive brainstorming and drama/movement activity! After the videoconference event, the second grade students all enjoyed a “dirt treat”!

Prior to the videoconference, the students created acrostic poems and completed a Google Earth lesson on landforms that included exploring the High Line in New York City, the setting for the Curious Garden. The unit the students are studying in Science is rocks and soil and the students will be planting and growing their own seeds. In art class, students will be creating 3-d art as the art show theme is the High Line.

Enjoy our photos….

Pam Felegi and several of her Special Interest students participated in a MAGPI sponsored videoconference on April 15, 2010 titled “Cell Signaling and Targeted Therapuetics for the Treatment of Cancer”. Our students along with two other participating schools met with Dr. Matthew Lazzara, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering for a discussion on cell signaling and therapuetics for the treatment of cancer. This program was part of the LRSM High School Lecture Series. The LRSM, Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter, is the center for materials research at the University of PA. Dr. Lazzara outlined the basic concepts of cell signaling in health and disease and how improperly regulated cells can lead to cancer. He discussed the treatment options for cancer along with the side effects of each. Our students asked great questions and were impressed with Dr. Lazzara’s knowledge. This was a very informative videoconference!

Donna Goserud and her ESL students collaborated with Tallwood High School in Virginia Beach on March 26th.  The VA students were looking for a partner school to discuss and share thoughts on different culture’s ideas about beauty, including information on what clothes are popular, what body image is advocated by society, and what mannerisms are considered beautiful, among other things.  They discussed what trends were prevalent in clutures around the world and how those trends originated and how older customs may influence members of modern society.  Both schools answered questions such as, “What is beautiful?”, “How do you feel the media influences beauty in your culture?”, “What makeup, hair, and clothing are consdiered taboo in your society?”  This was a good learning experience for both schools!

On March 12th, Kim Meredith took her Conversational Spanish students on a virtual field trip to the Indianapolis Zoo.  Through the zoo’s Distance Learning Program, our class reached across the miles for an amazing learning experience.  The Program Guide: Animales en Espanol offered by the zoo was very interactive which included video footage, artifacts and activities about amphibians, reptiles, fish, birds, and mammals.  The educational guide taught the Spanish translation of animal-related vocabulary words and discussed general characteristics and facts about the different groups of animals.  The students used their speaking and listening skills to converse in Spanish.  The Indianapolis Zoo is one of the first zoos in the country to offer a formal distance learning program.

On February 18th, Hempfield High School Chinese II students had a opportunity to interact with the entire second grade from Mountville Elementary via videoconference!  The second grade students were currently working on Chinese New Year stories and activities.  They wanted to interact with the high school students who were learning to speak Chinese as well as studying the culture.  The second grade students learned some Chinese “greetings” and how to count to 10.  They also shared their beautiful Chinese artwork with the high school.  It was a great experience for everyone!