Great Race teams make a virtual visit to North Slope Borough, Alaska

The great race teams from Avon Heritage North Elementary School completed the project with a videoconference with Ipalook Elementary in North Slope Borough Alaska. The fifth grade students were treated to a presentation about North Slope and the Inuit culture by the students from Mr. Darling’s 5th grade class. The presentation started with a traditional dance, followed by the clothing that is common with their students and Inuit artifacts consisting of drums and masks. The Avon students were in awe of the coats made of wolves, seal and wolverine.

On a seasonably warm day in Ohio the Avon students were shocked to hear that it was 24 degrees below zero and that the students shared many of the same interests. While the adults were amazed with the wolverine boots one of the students were presenting on of the Avon boys commented on the Air Jordan’s that the boy behind were wearing. The question and answer period between the classes showed that the students had more in common than not.

We enjoyed our time with Ipalook Elementary and hope to see them online again.

A Sense of Adaptation with Michigan State University

2nd graders from Avon East develop a better understanding of adaptations by discussing how animals and insects adapt making them successful species. The staff at Michigan State University went through each of the five senses and demonstrated animals that have adapted to that particular sense.

Once the students had a better understanding of adaptation each student was given a cricket in plastic container. On one side of a paper the students drew pictures of the crickets and colored parts that make them successful. After sharing their results the students are asked to draw crickets in an artic environment. The students had to create adaptations for the crickets to allow them to survive in their new environment.

All of the students did a great job with their crickets and the lesson.

Avon Heritage South has two classes for the guess my town project

Do you live in Purple or Olive Town? The LCDLC, Columbiana County and NOECA distance learning consortiums have teamed up to create an geography, Ohio history and problem solving project for third grade classes.

The intent of the Guess What Town project is to introduce students to the history and geography of the State of Ohio by having the students study their own community with the intent of becoming ambassadors to other third grade students around the state. The students will present ten clues based on the five themes of geography to see if students at the participating sites can guess where they are located. The classroom teacher will assist in the project by helping his/her students with the presentation.Each class will present 5 of their 10 clues in a multi-point videoconference on March 28. On April 6 the classes will present their next 10 clues. During the conference on April 25, classes will guess in what town the presenters are located.

Which town do you live in? Can you guess the other towns? Project details and clues presented by the teams are posted online http://intercom.noeca.net/intercom/guess/intro.html .

The Great Race finishes in Alaska

If the names A-Town Penguins United or the Soaring Eagles sound familiar than you must have been involved in the Great Race Project! Columbiana, NOECA and the Lorain County Distance Learning Consortium teamed up to launch a multi curriculum event enhanced by videoconferencing. The involved schools divided their students into teams and gave them the task of taking a virtual travel from the horse shoe stadium at Ohio State University to Ipalook Elementary Alaska. The team with the quickest route and the cheapest cost were the winners.

Teams could only travel 7 hours per day, were required to eat three meals and pay for lodging. Students could rent cars, ride a bus, schedule a train but had to wait until they reached the state of Alaska to purchase a plane. While on there trip a group of students need to identify the landmarks they would pass on their route and identify souvenirs they would bring back.

While the A-Town Penguins or the Soaring Eagles did not win the contest, there presentation to the group was top notch. The students demonstrated their efforts with poster boards, maps and charts detailing their travel. The project was a lot of work and used real world data. The students used websites like triple AAA, Amtrak and Orbitz to get from Ohio to Alaska. The student’s real changes came when they had to convert currency and measurement in Canada and not traditional transportation.

The final videoconference will be with the students from Ipalook Elementary School in North Slope Alaska. The students will present their community and culture to our students.