Centurions Quest for Knowledge
FY09 LSTA grant
The FY09 LISTA N’SYNC with Technology Grant enabled Century CUSD #100 to purchase 16 desktop computers, 3 laptops, 2 projectors, 2 color laser printers and an HDTV for use during library classes for research and project presentation purposes. The Libraries at Century did not have access to computers for student use in the Elementary building and the ones in the High School were so old they were not capable of running Internet. The new equipment was ordered in early November, but due to a School Board issue, the orders were canceled until the issue could be resolved. Mrs. Lance, the project director worked closely with the board and the superintendent to resolve those issues. Unfortunately, due to those issues and canceled orders, the chosen vender decided not to work with the district on the project. That meant Mrs. Lance had to find new vendors. The new vendors met the board qualifications and orders were placed in December. The new equipment arrived in January and was ready for student use by February.
The title for our project is “Centurions quest for knowledge.” The idea is to enable the students to actually use information instead of just looking for it. The program is centered on students in 4th thru 8th grades. The program was designed to introduce students to better research skills using WebQuests, scavenger hunts, and daily questions or (quests).
At our school the students have their first encounter with a research paper in the first 9 weeks of 5th grade, so we chose to introduce the 4th grade classes to basic research techniques. Since the equipment was delayed, we started scavenger hunts and daily quests using reference materials already available in the libraries. The kids had fun finding out exactly how big the biggest Popsicle was, and who was the youngest president prior to Jimmy Carter’s term.
When the new equipment came in, we expanded the quests to the Internet. It didn’t take long to discover that we needed to introduce them to the exciting world of “Google” and it’s many other features. Most of the students had used Google, but were unfamiliar with Goggle’s other features like book search, maps, images, scholar and Google Earth. The students really liked the day we asked them to visit Mars on Google Earth. They discovered the space probe and were able to ask it questions. Google Earth was by far the biggest hit. We even had a teacher request extra library time so her class could use the new computers to visit Africa and view the terrain on Google Earth for Social Studies.
Another teacher assigned a project on different countries and the students were able to put their newly learned skills to work. The teacher was well pleased with the results. Another teacher assigned a project about presidents or other influential Americans. She was so pleased at what the students were learning that she decided to make them dig a little deeper. She decided to have them look at the genealogy of those people and add it to their reports. So the students created family trees and printed them on the new color printers to add eye appeal to their reports.
This year Century held its first annual school wide Science Fair. Century’s Libraries were able to assist the students by assigning WebQuests related to their projects, and basic research for their projects. The students were also able to use the new digital camera to take pictures of their projects at different stages and print them on the new color printers for use on their display boards. The parents and judges were well pleased with the end results.
The students enjoyed the WebQuest that were used. In one, they learned how to do a book talk. Unfortunately, do to the equipment delay, we did not get to make our own book talk DVD to use during library class, hopefully, we will complete that next school year. The students were also working on a WebQuest that involved making a podcast, which will also be completed next year. The students also interacted with a locked wiki. They thought it was fun to add information to a subject, even if they had no idea what the subject was. By doing this they learned not to use Wikipedia for their main research information.
We were able to bring in a guest speaker for grades 4 – 8 to teach the students even more new technologies. They learned about ask ChaCha, new search engines other than Google, how to make a long ulr tiny by using and how to Twitter.
All in all, even though our project got off on the wrong foot, we had a great year and will continue to enhance the student’s research skills far into the future thanks to the Illinois State Library and the FY09 LSTA N’Sync with technology grant.