September  2008

As an introduction to The Odyssey Ms. Ferreri's classes used the lab to do a WebQuest. Students went to http://library.thinkquest.org/193/data/homerhist.htm to investigate the history of the author, Homer. To learn about the characters and setting the students used the website http://www.pantheon.org/mythica/areas/all . Students completed worksheets to be used as a reference when reading The Odyssey.

Global Studies 9 classes worked on geography projects this month. Students were assigned different regions to research. They used internet sites from the library database such as http://www.socialstudies.abc-clio.com/   and other sites such as http://www.worldfactbook.org/ which can be found on-line to gather information.  Microsoft Publisher was used to create original travel brochures about the region they chose. They used critical thinking and computer skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of regions such as Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe.

Ms. Rubenstein's 12^th grade Government classes used the lab to work on a mock presidential election project.  This project will allow students to participate in all of the experiences entailed in a national election.  Students applied what they learned in class about primaries, political campaigns (speeches, advertisements, and debates), political analysis, etc. to complete the project. All students took part in the campaign in some way. Some students played the role of candidates, others as campaign advisers, some represented the media and others represented public interest groups.  Each group developed a webpage which was set up for the class on a wiki. A wiki allowed each individual student to work on material from home.  If students were unable to meet as a group, the wiki made it possible for students to collaborate and complete their work.  The target voting population was the 8^th grade. Mrs. Parente, Mr. Martello and Mr. Keim will be showing their students how to access the campaign pages on the wiki.  Eighth grade students will also view DVDs of speeches that the candidates make and listen to a formal debate before making their decision on who should be president.  The wiki can be accessed from http://mockelection2007.pbwiki.com/ .