Thanks for the opportunity to share with you one of the"Student Research Projects" we've been working on here at Valley. We have a wonderful school "Internet Lab" that we as teachers (45 of us) can use with our classes five times a year. Our Principal, Don LeMay, and our full-time MacLab Co-ordinator, Lew Pearsall make sure the Internet is up and the network of thirty five computers are continually funded and working. With this facility we as teachers can create high-tech lessons that apply to our departmental , district and state standards in science, language arts, math and social studies.
This portfolio building activity on "The Lives of Famous Scientists and Mathematicians" is one my students enjoy alot. A series of lesssons that we can easily share the biographical print outs with one another, place on our school server and put up on our Valley Website. Students are given an A-Z list of scientists and mathematicians and go the school and/or city libraries and find all they can about the person they are researching. They also use a printed copy of the specific questions found within each class period on this disk as an organizer for collecting their biographical information. The Web authoring and students sharing their research make this series an important link during the school year to help us better understand the historical and modern day significance of how science and mathematics are making such a difference in our lives. Thanks, it was fun sharing this portfolio project with you.
Jay Klopfenstein, Science Teacher
Valley Junior High School
1645 Magnolia Avenue
Carlsbad, CA 92008
e-mail: jaykplanr@aol.com