by Mr. Brown

    Fifth grade boys were given an assignment by Lower School Art teacher Mr. Willis to create designs for a new Haverford campus. The project started with a sketch, which was taken to the computer lab for refinement using both Logo and KidPix software.

    Top-views and side-views (walls) were printed and checked for exact measurements. Logo offered boys a way to program exact measurements, while KidPix required students to use a ruler. One Fifth grade boy used boyth Logo and KidPix, and said he preferred Logo because "I can draw straighter lines and the walls are more perfect."

    Groups of four were responsible for making at least six buildings: Van Pelt, Crosman, Wilson, Severinghaus, Centennial Hall and Ryan Gym.

    With computer-aided designs in hand, boys carefullly traced their blueprints onto wood, and then used crafting tools under the direction of Mr. Willis to shape their buildings. Popsicle sticks were used for walkways.
 

by Mr. Meakim

    The third grade brought their knowledge of ancient Egypt into the computer lab to create their own Egyptian city. Working in small groups the students were responsible for creating an aerial map of their city with Logo programming software.

    Logo combines spatial reasoning, geometry, computer programming and art. Each student was responsible for creating three ancient Egyptian structures. The students had to collaborate to ensure that all structures would work together. For example, the bridge that one student was building must be long enough to span the Nile that another student was responsible for creating.

    After each student completed their structures in Logo, they were responsible for drawing artistic renditions of their buildings in KidPix. They took their two dimensional aerial view and had to create a three dimensional ground view that reflected the same dimensions.

    Once all structures and pictures were completed the group had to organize and construct their city. After the group completed their city, they presented it to the class. The students did a great job collaborating in the cooperative learning project.
 

by Mr. Meakim

    The Second grade has just completed an extensive multimedia presentation on Native Americans. Students studied five Native American tribes in the regular classroom for over one month. They studied the Makah, Mandan, Penobscot, Creek and Hopi tribes.

    The students then took their knowledge of these tribe to the computer lab and created a PowerPoint-style presentation using HyperStudio. The boys wrote a detailed paragraph about each tribe. They drew intricate pictures of the tribes and imported them into their presentations.

    When the boys were finished it was time to present their work to the class. Using the big monitor, each student made a presentation describing his artwork and reading his composition.

    During the course of this project, critical thinking skills wre used to organize and create a complex presentation. Boys used our local network to move completed work to the Lower School server and practiced public speaking skills with an audience of peers.
 

by Mr. Brown

    Dr. Turner has given boys an assignment to complete a plant report in the Lower School computer lab. Requirements for the project can be found at Dr. Turner's Website.

    Below is a detailed description from Dr. Turner's Website:

"...Use books and encyclopedias to find out information about your topic. In library class, write down at least six facts and the author, title, publisher and copyright date of the books you used. Take your science journals to computer class and start writing and find or make a picture to illustrate your paper. You may get the picture from the Internet, scan it from a book or make your own picture using KidPix."

    Boys not only found pictures of their plants on the Internet, they also found many facts in addition to those they found in the library. One students mentioned, "I found 24 facts today from two different Web sites! Now I'm ready to start writing."

    One other important thing the boys needed to learn was that if they use information from the Internet, that they should include the Web site title, author and URL (http://www...) as part of their bibliography.