HSD Videoconferencing

On April 24th, Mrs. Miller and her health class participated in a MAGPI sponsored event titled, “Inner World Discovery”.  This videoconference helped the high school students explore the immune system through an interactive multimedia presentation which took a trip through the human body.  The program was designed by Phillip Silverstein, Riddle Memorial Hospital’s emergency room doctor.   Dr. Silverstein discussed the complexities of understanding the immune system as well as explained the devastating effects of HIV.  Our students enjoyed the event and many had their first experience with videoconferencing.

Mr. Wise took two classes of Sports Marketing students for a virtual field trip to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Friday, April 24th!  His first semester students enjoyed the Careers in the NFL Program so much that Mr. Wise decided to visit again for the second semester.  The Hall of Fame is located in Canton, Ohio and offers distance learning programs to schools nationwide.  Each program is supplemented by classroom activities which are aligned with national standards.  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

Pam Felegi’s “Special Interest” students virtually joined Dr. Shu Yang and three other schools in a program titled Frontiers of Material Science. Dr. Yang is the Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of PA. Dr. Yang’s discussion outlined the basic concepts of hydrogels with a focus on how they respond to external stimuli. She gave several examples of swellable gels in our daily lives including diapers and silly putty. Videoconferencing was new to many of the students who participated in the event. All expressed an interest in experiencing similar opportunities!

Mr. Newman and Miss Lessard took their 10th grade Cultures class to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans on Tuesday, March 31st without even leaving the building! Their virtual visit program was titled “We’re All in This Together”, The American Home Front during WW II and was viewed from the Distance Lab at the High School. The presenter tackled the four challenges of the Home Font: making materials, food shortages, protecting the country and keeping America optimistic! The students viewed photos, posters, songs and speeches and discussed the triumphs and mistakes that were made on the home front. The students enjoyed the program and learned from the videoconference but suggested to the museum that the next trip include more of a audio-visual tour of the museum’s exhibits.

On Thursday, March 25th, Mrs. Felegi’s Special Interest students attended a MAGPI sponsored videoconference event titled “Cell Signaling and Target Therapeutics for the Treatment of Cancer”. They had the opportunity to listen and interact with the presenter, Dr Matthew Lazzara, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. The presentation outlined some basic concepts underlying receptor-medicated cell signaling in health and disease. Dr. Lazzara discussed how improperly regulated cell signaling processes can lead to cancer. Five other high schools also participated in the conference. In a round-robin format, each site had the ability to ask questions of the presenter. Our students all expressed that they enjoyed the videoconference event and are ready to participate in future events!

Mrs. Amy Saporetti from the Landisville Primary Center participated in the “100th Day of School Videoconference” with her 1st grade students. This videoconference, sponsored by MAGPI included a presentation from the author, Dr. Lester Laminack. Each participating school received a complimentary copy of Dr. Laminack’s book titled “Jakes 100th Day of School”. The schools each had a chance to show off their skills by sharing their 100th Day of School projects with the author and the other schools connected on the videoconference call. Mrs. Saporetti’s students each prepared beautiful posters to demonstrate that they were familiar with 100 words. This was the perfect time for the students to have fun with the number 100!

Mrs. Kautter’s first group of dance students enjoyed the Hip Hop and Conflict Resolution videoconference offered through MAGPI in December so she scheduled another event for a second group of dance students! On March 10th, Hempfield High School students had the opportunity to learn some of the history of Hip Hop and were given instruction on the basic dance moves by Dan, one of ArcheDream’s teaching artists. Dan demonstrated locking, popping, up-rock & b-boy styles of break dancing. Students had an opportunity to showcase their freestyle dance moves! Our high school dancers were excited to participate in this interactive event and are interested in exploring future videoconference opportunities.

Our final Read Around the Planet videoconference took place yesterday afternoon. Madame Rita Nutter’s French 5 class interacted with her partner, Madame Joelle Barrette and her Advanced French Class form Ecole Francophone d’Airdrie in Airdrie, Canada. Both classes prepared power point presentations on their geographic area which included sharing historical facts, local products, foods and art. The students enjoyed interacting and asking each other questions about their schools so much that the session lasted 20 minutes longer than anticipated! Both schools are eager to videoconference again and are working on scheduling another event in May! Great job to both schools!

Three high school foreign language teachers, Mrs. Sherri Seachrist, Mr. Ryan Stralo, and Mr. Xiaodong Fan celebrated NEA’s Read Across America by collaborating with other classrooms “around the planet”. Mrs. Seachrist and Mr. Stralo’s classes both connected with students from Monmouth County Vocational School District in Neptune, NJ and Mr. Fan’s class connected with students from Los Angeles Unified School District in Los Angeles, CA. Read Across America is sponsored by Twice and Polycom, in cooperation with NEA. Twice provided the matching service for point-to-point videconferences betwee schools. Using this video conference technology, the classrooms were able to present flashcards, skits, songs, questions and more to each other. It was a new and powerful experience for many of the students!

During block 3 and 4 on Thursday, February 19th, the Distance Lab was open and available for teachers and students to view the annual “Megaconference Jr. 2009″. The exciting opportunity sponsored by MAGPI is in its sixth year. The project is designed to give students in elementary and secondary schools around the world the opportunity to interact and communicate with each other. It is a 12 hour event which makes it possible to include schools from all time zones. Schools from Australia, Canada, Portugal, Croatia, Great Britain, Spain, US and more were included in the event. Mrs. Buckwalter’s Family and Consumer Science students attended a portion of block 4 where they had an opportunity to see a presentation from Millgrove Early Years School in Alberta, Canada titled “Camping Around Alberta”. It gave the students an exciting look into the world of videoconferencing! Mrs. Buckwalter hopes to bring her students again to the lab in the spring.