Technology Use Assessments | Curriculum Integration and Enhancement: Council Grove High School, Council Grove Middle and Elementary School, Prairie Heights Middle and Elementary Schools

Curriculum Integration and Enhancement

Council Grove High School

a. In language arts, one of the goals of the school improvement plan is to increase student comprehension in expository text. Students are required to use internet resources when doing research. The students are taught to evaluate information on the internet in the same manner as they would if researching information in texts or magazines. They are taught to treat the internet just like a text and to cite information that is directly quoted from internet sources.

b. The internet is also used to supplement the resources available in the school. The budget does not allow for the purchase of materials on every possible subject available for student research. However, with access to internet resources, students can do research on obscure topics that they find more interesting and are more likely to find personal relevance in the project.

c. Reading is addressed across the curriculum. One of the strategies the high school has employed to improve reading is concept mapping. They have installed and use the software “Inspiration” to help them with this. Students and teachers are encouraged to either create or fill out concept maps that have been created on the software.

d. Writing is also a part of the school improvement plan and is addressed across the curriculum. Students use technology resources to write everything from business letters to research papers. As a result, editing the rough drafts is easier and makes more sense to the students because they can see how writing of every kind is a work in progress on the computer. The finished products are better quality and students have a better understanding of the process of writing.

e. The American Studies classes have students create projects which utilize technology resources and may include the use of multi-media tools.

f. The journalism classes teach publication concepts using technology resources. The newspaper and yearbook pages are generated on the computer and sent directly to the publishers. Students utilize scanners, digital cameras, and graphics programs to help publish their products.

g. In communications, students use multi-media software to create computer generated graphics for the presentation of speeches. The software in the past has been HyperStudio. However, the district has purchased some copies of Office 2001 and students are now creating their presentations using PowerPoint. Like research in the language arts departments, students use the internet as a resource for information on their speech topics. In 2002, the district will purchase enough Office site licenses so that all computers that can handle the software will have it loaded on them.

h. In the business department, students take classes that teach them business concepts using computer applications. The curriculum includes Accounting (Quickbooks), web page design, desktop publishing (Adobe PageMaker), multi-media (PowerPoint & HyperStudio), Microsoft Office suite, and word processing.

i. In the science departments, students use technology to enhance the science concepts. They utilize two labs that teach students concepts in alternative energy, architectural design, bioengineering, communications technology, digital electronics, environmental technology, manufacturing technology, materials science, and multi-media production. Students in the science, chemistry, and physics departments also use word processing & spreadsheets for recording and graphing data they have collected. These labs also help to address the problem solving component of the School Improvement Plan by posing problems the students have to solve.

j. In the music department, students are introduced to the music composing technology resources. Much of the music is created and then played back with the use of a laptop and a keyboard.

k. In the social science department, students use multi-media tools to put together reports on local and state history. They also use spreadsheet graphing tools to collect data and put it into report formats. Many of these projects are posted to the web to showcase student work for the community and train the students how to publish to the web.

 

 

Last Updated March 3, 2003