BEARS

I. Briefly review the project proposal form. Discuss the project theme, outline and time line; review the project and curriculum objectives.

Our idea came from a group meeting to plan a resource based unit on the bears theme for the grade 2 classes. While discussing how to integrate technology into the unit the idea to create a web site about bears, using information gathered by our students through Internet research, got us excited about the learning possibilities it could provide to our students. Throughout the project students gathered information from many sources about the different types of bears found around the world. During their Internet research, students identified pictures and took notes about bears to be incorporated into a slide show created with Corel Presentations. This slide show was created by the students (one slide for each student) and presented to others in the school and to parents. It was then converted into HTML format and placed on the web page. Schools across the country were e-mailed for stories about bears found in their area and zoos were e-mailed for stories about their bears. These stories were enjoyed by the students before being placed on the web page. The complete resource based unit was placed on the web page for the use of any teacher who wishes to develop a similar project for their students.

II. Show the audience the outcome of the project proposal.

Results and a tour of the project can be seen at: http://www.k12.nf.ca/lewisac/Grade2/bears/index.html

III. Briefly comment on any successes or problems that were encountered throughout the life of the project.

This project was a tremendous success with the students and parents. One of the most satisfying outcomes was the pride which students took in showing their slide show to anyone who would watch it. The students' sense of accomplishment when they saw their name projected on the slide show was obvious. The help of a number of parent volunteers made it possible for all students to complete their research and writing for the project. A few students with severe reading and writing difficulties were paired with other students to complete their slides. If we had more time we could have taken the project much farther with student graphic work, etc., but that will have to come in another project.

IV. Comment on any aspects of the project that you would do differently.

We could have had the students more actively involved in producing the web site. It would have been good to involve them in more of the scanning of images and downloading from the web. Due to time constraints the students found and identified images but much of the recovery work was done by teachers. More student involvement in e-mailing would be good.

V. Comment on if and how the project can be expanded next year.

More information about bears can be included next year. It would be especially good if we could contact more schools, through e-mail, for personal stories about various types of bears. That was one part of the project which did not work well due to lack of response from schools. The teacher resource can be further developed, however it may not happen due to reduction in time allocated to Resource Based Learning.