HSD Videoconferencing

On November 5, 2009, Shani Evans and her students along with 10 other schools from PA and VA attended a MAGPI event titled “Haunted Poe”. The videoconference event was hosted by Brat Productions, a theatre company in Philadelphia. The students learned about Edgar Allan Poe’s biography as well as some of his works. We were taken virtually behind the scene to observe the process of creating the Haunted Poe production. Short passages and stories were performed by professional actors. I think we were all amazed at the theatrical costumes and props used in the haunted house! Our students had a chance to ask questions of the presenters which included the challenges of creating the productions.

On October 21, 2009, Andy Wise took his Sports Marketing class to the NFL Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH. The students learned about careers in the NFL. This is the 3rd year that Andy has taken his students to visit Jerry Csaki, the Educational Director at the NFL Hall of Fame. Each year, thousands of students physically tour the museum. The Hall of Fame offers distance learning programs to schools nationwide who cannot easily drive to their location. The HOF supplements the videoconferencing event with pre and post classroom activities that are aligned the national standards of education.

The “Careers in the NFL” program examined the importance of education and the hundreds of careers available in and around the National Football League. A 15-minute careers video which examined a wide variety of careers with the Pittsburgh Steelers organization was shown during this session. The 50-minute program was designed to be highly interactive. Once again, all his students thoroughly enjoyed the event!

With fall in full swing, so is our videoconferencing here at Hempfield School District. Some of our upcoming events include:

NFL Football Hall of Fame

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

MAGPI - Pew Fellows/Painting, Haunted Poe, Fleshing the Bones, Cartooning with Blitz, Ben Brewer and the Supreme Court

Holocaust Memorial Center

NASA - The Moon

Bullying - Don’t Feed the Bully

1st Grade Pen Pals Collaboration

Cleveland Museum of Art

The Hempfield School District has been working with staff from the University of Virginia for the last three years to train our teaching staff in Differentiated Instruction, a classroom philosophy that focuses on recognizing student differences in the classroom and focusing on those differences in planning instruction. Carol Ann Tomlinson, the primary researcher and publisher in the area of differentiated instruction, spoke to the entire instructional staff on the opening inservice day via videoconferencing.

Mrs. Goserud took her ELL students to the NFL Hall of Fame on May 27th. Our presenter, Jerry Csaki, provided the students with a virtual field trip to the HOF which included a detailed program on careers in the NFL.  The Careers in the NFL Program examined the importance of education and careers available in and around the National Football League. The students watched a 15 minute careers video which focused on the Pittsburgh Steelers organization and the variety of careers available with the organization. Our students asked great questions and were very well prepared to discuss career options with the Hall of Fame presenter. Visit their website for pictures and more information: http://www.profootballhof.com/hall/DistanceLearning.jsp

Three of Mrs. Buckwalter’s Baking and Pastry classes offered a demonstration of their creative designs on Tuesday, May 12th. We used our videoconference technology to connect with Hoover High School in Ohio, McGuffey High School in PA, and Hillsborough High School in NJ. Mrs. Buckwalter’s class received an overwhelming response from high schools across the country to participate and view the demonstration after we posted her collaboration idea on CILC (Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration) and TWICE (Two Way Interactive Connections in Education). Each class had 5 separate groups who presented the following design topics: Gingerbread Sculpting, Rolled Fondant, Butter Cream Icing, Clear Candy, and Sugar Run-In. The Baking Students provided everyone with the ingredients as well as demonstrated the step by step procedures to create each item. I think we were all amazed at the talents of the class! Videocconferencing was a new experience for many of the students in all the schools who participated.

HHS ELL students participated in a collaborative project designed by the MAGPI Arts and Humanities Fellows team. Each participating school created a video to address the question “Do you ever feel that other Americans misunderstand or stereotype your culture in relation to religion, ethnicity, race, or traditions?” Schools from around the world participated in a videoconference to discuss their projects. Click here to see photos and view the projects created by Hempfield students and the other participating schools.

Over the last two months, Mrs. Spangler and Mr. Podgurski’s 5th grade students were involved in a Wild Weather videoconference project. During this project, classrooms from around the country observed their weather and collected this data for their region. On April 14th, students were fortunate to meet Mark Bogner, a Chief Wild Weather Meteorologist from Kansas via videoconference! A Wild Weather blog was used for students to provide background information about their school as well as post questions. The final videoconferences was held on May 5th and 6th where schools shared the students’ final projects. This project allowed students to work collaboratively and see those participating schools and also get the chance to reach outside their school walls! To see our students’ projects click here.

Mrs. Swarm’s third grade class participated in a videoconference event on May 7th with the Hands On Museum in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Students discussed the three states of matter, then combined ingredients to create two mystery “slime” substances. They used four of their five senses to describe their slime to the activity leader at the museum and attempted to identify whether it was a solid, liquid or gas. Each student took a small container of slime home with them for further experimentation!

Sixth grade students saved 30 astronauts in the NASA e-mission simulation, Target Moon, at Centerville Elementary on May 1, 2009. The students participated in one of five teams - Communications, Comet Tracking, Moon Mapping, Crisis Management and Public Relations.

Black Knight’s E-Mission Experience
By Sarah and Elizabeth

Ready to go by 9:10 on this early Friday morning. Nervousness is filling the room. Stress might be visiting the teams as they are working.  The word “over” is ringing in my ears.  Mrs. Smith says there will be lots of commotion once the mission’s starts….Now.

30 astronauts, 3 moon bases, only one moon, and KC2035. What will happen? A smaller comet by KC2035 is the latest info. No one knows for sure what it will do, but it will probably hit the moon along with KC2035. The Communications Team thinks if all the teams do their jobs correctly, everything will be all right. They also will communicate to Mission Control by a chat room and videoconference.  The Moon Mapping Team will find the possibilities of danger to the lunar bases with all their math skills.  The Comet tracking Team will find the time of impact and how far the ejecta will expand.  The Crisis Management Team is trying to find ways to evacuate the astronauts. They already have some ideas to get them to safety. A member of the Comet Tracking says that the extra comet means double the work.  Right now, the Crisis Management Team might have found a way to evacuate the six astronauts to safety. Reporting all of this is the Public Relations Team, who translates this news to the public.

Down to 1 hour until the comet hits the moon; the stress is overflowing, especially for the Crisis Management Team. Breaking news- about 30 minutes until impact…the comet has just hit, and NASA has lost contact with all astronauts. No lives were lost from this impact. Mission Control has said “Congrats.  Great teamwork, and great work.”   This mission was complete success.  Mission Control has said that teamwork is key to a complete mission.

To hear a student produced podcast introduction the the e-mission click here and then scroll down to the entry “CES Black Knights e-Mission Experience”