Janet Thornber
Co-Director, UCLA Science Project
Power point. Quick Time movies. Quick Take cameras. HyperStudio. News groups. Is this a new class in the theater arts department? or the UCLA film department? What has all this to do with science?
In summer `96, 23 teacher associates from the UCLA Science Project, UCLA Project ISSUES, and Target Science spent an all-too-short, week finding out. And they had a lot of fun doing it!
LALCNet and the Elizabeth Street Learning Center, generously hosted this UCLA Science Project institute--Technology for Investigations and Presentations. In a lab well-furnished with Macs and PCs teacher participants learned to use software and electronic communication systems to perform investigations and report on their findings.
With its focus on using technology for inquiry, the institute provided experiences with using technology for data access, acquisition, and analysis. Guest presenters and teacher facilitators helped participants learn to "surf the Net" and review laser discs to retrieve background information.
Participants excitedly used Quick Take cameras to capture images, learned to input data into spreadsheets that could instantly graph data, and sent e-mail messages to each other about their results. They also registered with many news groups available through LALCNet.
To top it off, participants learned to link investigations, results, background information and conclusions using the interactive software HyperStudio software and turn their experiences into slide shows using PowerPoint.
The engaging presentations shared at the end of the week paid verified the success of the institute and commitment of participants while illustrating how technology can be used to promote inquiry in science instruction.
Feed-back (received electronically, of course!) indicated that future technology institutes must be longer, because, though participants were eager to return to their schools to use their new-found expertise, they did feel overwhelmed.
While technological literacy was acquired, no one left knowing how to use all the equipment and software -- far from it. Yet we did get a good sense of the technology currently available, learned how it could strengthen science instruction, and became familiar with the terms we need for requesting hardware and software.
The UCLA Science Project will continue to develop this pilot technology institute and will offer future programs to associates of past institutes. If you are in need of a technology uplift, this is for you, so keep a lookout for next year's institute and sign up early!
