February 2008

Social Studies 9 classes used the lab to create projects for their electronic portfolio.  The World's Worst Dictator Project provided each group with the opportunity to research a current totalitarian world leader.  The students researched the leader's current political, economic and social systems.  The students also researched human rights violations within their particular country.  When the students completed the research portion, they then, formulated a PowerPoint presentation in order to prove their ruler is truly "the world's worst."

Global Studies 10 classes completed a web quest on Imperialism.  In the web quest, students acted as part of a delegation from an assigned country that was once a colony.  Each delegation's task is to create a panel presentation to explain and evaluate the advantages of colonization for their country.  Each delegation will share their panel presentation at this year's Annual Conference on the Legacy of Imperialism, so that we as a global community can address out target question:  Were the effects of Imperialism in your country more positive or negative overall?  Students used Microsoft Internet Explorer to research the form that Imperialism took in their assigned country and to locate maps, graphs, charts and pictures to support their presentation.

Mr. Thiem's and Mr. Nappo's 12th grade Economics class is excited about using the High School lab to learn about trading stocks.  They are using Stocksquest, a realistic stock market game, to help students learn how the stock market works. Each student creates an individual account with $100,000 of virtual money to invest for 12 weeks. On this site students can buy and sell stocks. The share prices are updated and profits and losses are calculated automatically. Students are encouraged to diversify their portfolios. Stocksquest ( http://www.stocksquest.com/ ) "is a free realistic stock market simulation, where students can have fun and learn about the stock market at no cost." Students are also shown other Internet sites such as http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/home.asp and http://finance.yahoo.com/ where they can research stocks. This economics lesson teaches students important intellectual and computer skills that help them become better investors.