The Ephrata Area Education Foundation awarded nine Venture Grants to Ephrata Area School District teachers for the 2007-2008 school year. The grants helped teachers and students work on innovative program.

 

Below are a few of the success stories for the 2007-2008 Venture Grants.

• Egyptian Ceramics: Connecting Art and History to Chemistry

• Fun Fitness Forever – Skating in School

• Information and Communication Technology Literacy Skills for 21^st Century Students

• Robotics Lab

• Scholastic Writing Award Endowment

If you would like to provide financial support to the Venture Grant program, please contact Stephanie Gingrich of the Ephrata Area Education Foundation at (717) 721-1589.

 

Egyptian Ceramics: Connecting Art and History to Chemistry

Grant Recipient: Carlyn Fryberger (Ephrata High School)

 

Students in the Foundation of Chemistry classes at Ephrata High School created artifacts made of a self-glazing ceramic, Egyptian paste.  Students were required to research ancient Egyptian artifacts, choosing one to reproduce using Egyptian paste. They also researched the components of Egyptian paste, and the ratios that were likely used by the ancient Egyptians. Students then calculated the amount of colorant and paste that needed to be mixed to produce the correct consistency, using stoichiometric relationships. Colorants included copper carbonate, cobalt carbonate, chromium oxide, manganese dioxide, and iron oxide. They then formed their artifacts from the paste. At the conclusion of the activity, students presented their artifacts to their peers, discovering which colorant produced what color. 

 

Pictures and descriptions of the activity can be accessed through the course web page at http://www.easdpa.org/ehs/departments/science/Fryberger/chempics.htm.

 

Fun Fitness Forever – Skating in School

Grant Recipients: Heidi Yohn, Mike Garrison, and Steve Sweigart (Ephrata Middle School)

 

With our Fun Fitness Forever Venture Grant, we were able to purchase 29 pair of in-line skates. Twenty-five students in Energizer Club had rollerbladed many times this past year. Three of the students had never before rollerbladed or skated and can now skate without holding on or being lead by another person.  Students’ awareness of lifetime activities has increased, and it has given them another option for individual fitness.  My students were surveyed and all want to continue this program for next year. I am adding it permanently to our activities list for Energizer Club and I hope to add it to our physical education curriculum for the 2008-2009 school year.

 

Being awarded the Venture grant has afforded many Ephrata Middle School students the opportunity to try a fitness activity that for some of the students had never been attempted.  All of my students were very excited when I told them that we would be rollerblading this year. I started my skating instruction by having the students watch the instructional skating video that was provided when we purchased the skates.  All of the students watched the video which explained skating safety and skills for rollerblading. As you can imagine, all of the students wanted to skate immediately. This video instruction was new to me as well.  I know how to rollerblade but did not know the specific terms and skill progression breakdowns that needed to be taught.  In addition, the rollerblading company supplied us with the rollerblading curriculum.

 

This curriculum was extremely valuable to me and I used it often for games and activities as skating instruction progressed.  We started off slowly due to the differences in the individuals skating abilities. I had kids who were competent rollerblading and they were my easiest group to instruct.  After reviewing basic safety procedures; stopping, turning, and control, those students were able to participate in skating weaves; skating in and around cones at ones own pace, and doing the limbo. They loved the limbo!  Students who did not know how to skate needed much more instruction and I concentrated much of my attention on them. Students who had not skated in the past were first taught the “V-Walk” on a long mat thus not allowing their skates to glide.  They were also taught how to properly and safely fall.  Eventually, all of the students progressed to walking and gliding on the gym floor at a much quicker pace.

 

The Energizer Club had media coverage this year as we appeared on channel 27 while rollerblading. The program aired on the evening news and featured our district and what we are doing to combat childhood obesity.

At the end of the school year, students completed a survey and some interesting but predicted outcomes were noted.  Most noted was that all of the energizers want to continue rollerblading the next school year.  Some of the Individual survey questions included:  Can you demonstrate proper falling techniques? Can you properly stop, glide, and skate backwards?  Many of the students could not perform these skills upon the start of the program and ended up being competent on these skills at its conclusion. 

 

In all, our Fun Fitness Forever – Skating in School program was a huge success.  Though some of the results of our program are difficult to substantiate at a local level, national research shows that ACTIVE BODIES = ACTIVE MINDS. Children who are physically active do better in school.  A recent California Department of Education study showed that higher levels of fitness directly correlated with improved academic performance in math and reading.

 

In addition to the active minds, many of the fitness benefits of our skating program like many other skating programs around the country include:

• Students will enjoy increasing cardiovascular endurance, toning muscles and developing healthy habits for a lifetime.

• Has aerobic benefits that are greater than stair-stepping and almost as good as running.

• Burns calories. Up to 360 calories burned by a 150-pounder skating for 30 minutes.

• Tones muscles, especially the hips, thighs and gluteus.

• Improves balance and agility.

• Is a low-impact workout, producing less than half the shock to joints that running does.

Information and Communication Technology Literacy Skills

for 21^st Century Students

Grant Recipient: Jane Englert (Ephrata High School)

 

With the understanding that our students graduate into an ever-evolving, information laden future fueled by technology innovation, two personal/professional questions came to mind when applying for this grant.  First, what information and communication skills will our students need in this 21^st century digital society and secondly, how do we develop and assess projects that challenge our students to use these higher order and critical thinking skills to solve real world problems?  Due to the thick and abstract nature of these questions, I found myself looking for a reputable source to help define what this really looks like using concrete, practical examples.  The iSkills Assessment developed by the Educational Testing Service provided an opportunity to begin to address these questions.

 

ETS found through their research, that students entering post-secondary schools and the workforce could readily use technology for entertainment purposes, but that many did not have sufficient information and communication skills to do the next level of work.

 

Two outcomes were anticipated by using iSkills to address my questions.  First, where do we (Ephrata students) stand based on this assessment and what can we (Ephrata educators and administrators) do to best prepare our students for their future.

 

To introduce the opportunity to participate in the iSkills Assessment, students in the fall and spring semesters of the Techniques of Research classes were asked these questions: 

1. How do you know if you are ready for post-secondary expectations?

2. What kind of skills do you think you will need (for success with what comes next – 4 year college, 2 year college, industry,  etc…)?

Students thoughtfully responded with skill suggestions such as responsible study habits, effective time-management, the ability to research, the ability to communicate, how to write well…to name a few.  The dialog confirmed that most students felt reasonably confident they were prepared for the next level of life beyond high school.

 

The iSkills Assessment focuses on seven main areas covering the ability to:

• Define – Formulate a research statement to facilitate the search for information

• Access – Find and retrieve information from a variety of sources

• Evaluate – Judge the usefulness and sufficiency of information for a specific purpose

• Manage – Organize information for later retrieval

• Integrate – Summarize or otherwise synthesize

• Create – generate or adapt online information to express and support a point

• Communicate – Adapt information for an audience or delivery via a different medium

During the 2007-2008 school year, thirty students voluntarily elected to take the iSkills in addition to required coursework.  Personal scores on the assessment can range from 0 to 300. The midpoint of the scale (150) represents the average performance of all early 2006 test takers.  The average result for the Ephrata students tested is 117.   Assessment percentile scores show how individuals did in comparison with all the people who took the test early in 2006. Ephrata students averaged at 49%.

 

Because we could not purchase a baseline of 50 seats for the assessment, some of the additional aggregate reports were not available.  To this point, I have collectively converted all thirty sets of student result responses and created our own scoring rubric representing a framework that can be used to chart the individual results.  It is anticipated these results will represent any pattern of strength and weakness in the assessed areas based on our student responses.  This in turn will help to direct focus for instructional innovation. Plans to convert the individual data into additional cross-referenced results are in the works pending scheduling arrangements.

 

I thank the Ephrata Area Educational Foundation for the opportunity provided by the grant funding to pursue answers to these questions: 

 

What information and communication skills will our students need in this 21^st century digital society and secondly, how do we develop and assess projects that challenge our students to use these higher order and critical thinking skills to solve real world problems?

 

Having the opportunity to be a part of our students experience with the iSkills Assessment has provided valuable insight into the process of reflective teaching and laid groundwork for developing instruction that will help prepare them for whatever comes next.  I look forward to using what I have learned and will learn from our students and this experience.

 

Robotics Lab

Grant Recipient: Doug Kellogg (Ephrata High School)

 

Instructional Standard 3.1 Unifying Themes

Students were required to discriminate among the concepts of systems, subsystems, feedback, and control in solving technological problems by programming a BASIC stamp to respond to input from “whisker” or touch sensors.  Students were guided through an introductory approach to programming to learn the basics and finally students applied all skills into completing the maze navigation challenge.

 

Instructional Standard 3.2 Inquiry and Design

In completing the maze challenge students had to identify and apply the technological design process to solve problems by solving a real time maze navigation and analyzing the proposed course and program the most efficient reactions to signals received by the robot’s sensors.

 

Instructional Standard 3.4 Physical Science, Chemistry and Physics

Upon successful completion of the maze students were then challenged to use their understanding of among the principles of force and motion to modify their maze navigation program to work on robots with differently proportioned chassis and wheels.   These changes would cause students to consider how design can affect speed and turning radius.

 

Instructional Standard 3.7 Technological Devices

Utilize P-basic programming language to design computer software to solve various maze navigation problems using touch sensors.  Students were also be given the opportunity to modify their programs to work using infrared sensors to determine proximity.

 

Instruction and Assessment Strategy

The students were encouraged to work in pairs building, modify and programming robots.  Each student was required to do all the programming and keep track of all changes made to their project using the comment feature in the P-basic programming language. This guaranteed that each student typed in the program and had notes embedded within the program explaining what each section of code did as well as answers to some “discovery’ questions I created to guide their investigation.  I did this to ensure that all students were engaged in the process as well to avoid the usual problems of students not having their work if a partner was absent.  Under this system the students each had their own program copies and were able to work well as a group. Their grade for the project consisted of a class participation grade, a grade on their programs and journals as well as their robot’s timely completion of the maze.  Modifications to instructional materials and well as time allotments will be made for next year but the overall format was very successful.

 

  

English Department Chair Jennifer Eshleman states:

“Each year, the Alliance for Young Writers and Artists administers the Scholastic Writing and Art Awards which, according to their website, offer ‘early recognition of creative teenagers and scholarship opportunities for graduating high-school seniors.’  These awards provide an opportunity for our students to showcase the talents they have honed within their language arts classes at Ephrata High School.  By providing the financial support for many of our students to submit an entry, our department validates the importance of recognizing the literary and artistic skills of our students.”