CSI Avon, Ohio

Mr. Kelly’s ninth and tenth grade health classes help solve a murder mystery while learning about DNA with Health Space Cleveland.

The students shared their research articles on DNA with Mr. Bliss from health space and learned many new facts about the Human Genome Project. The students developed a better understanding of how DNA is playing an active role in our society. The students were surprised to hear what percentage of DNA they shared with each other and other species.

Once the students were in the DNA zone they were able to use there skills in a scientific game of who done it. The crime scene was described and the DNA samples were delivered to the groups in broken down amino acids. The scientific process of DNA identification was demonstrated. The students marked out the strands and compared their strand to a sample taken from the victim. The crime was solved and justice was done!

This session titled Genetic Revolution was one of many great programs offered by Health Space Cleveland. Check them out on the web at www.healthspacecleveland.org/education/education.asp?detail=9

Avon cuts over to the LEECA Fiber Project

The Avon Schools cut over to the LEECA Fiber Project providing the district with increased bandwidth to Elyria and to Columbus. A much needed upgrade was made to the LEECA network to Columbus providing all of the districts with much need breathing room. With an increase of videoconferencing traffic over the past years the Avon district is looking forward to increased bandwidth.

The Avon Schools have taken advantage of the model upgrade from Polycom by purchasing two Polycom EX view stations at closeout prices. One system is to replace Avon High Schools Vtel Galaxy system purchased through the IVDL Grant trough Ohio SchoolNet. This system has well earned its retirement, but as long as it makes and received calls it will stay at AHS.

Te second system has been added to the Avon HS TV studio for capturing video collaborations for editing and posting to their district cable access channel. This will provide media students the opportunity to edit and publish many of the great events that occur over videoconferencing.

The purchase of the two additional end points brings the school district to seven videoconferencing systems providing the students of Avon great opportunities to enhance their curriculum in the future.

Avon welcomes new partners to the LCDLC

Starting in January the Lorain County Distance Learning Consortium welcomes two new members to our virtual family. The Fairview School district has joined the consortium bringing Fairview High School to the consortium and in the 2007 their new elementary school will be added. The Fairview Schools are in the same athletic conference which will bring the districts together academically as well as athletically. We look forward to working with their students and teachers this year and in years to come.

Firelands Schools a member since the consortium was created took advantage of the Polycom Viewstation closeouts purchasing a Polycom EX for Firelands Elementary School. The Firelands School District has been making great strides in the academic performances these last years. We are looking forward to their continued success and to work with them in the future.

The Grinch pays a visit to Avon East

First grade classes from Avon East Elementary School connect to Global Leap in London for the closer look at the Grinch that stole Christmas. The students start with the Dr. Seuss holiday classic being read to them by Kathryn Griffith. Images from the story were displayed behind her.
After the story the students discussed the similarities between our town countries in how the holidays will be celebrated. The students enjoyed the discussion as much as the story.

Avon Students participate in the 2nd annual Holiday Tradition Conference

The door to the Distance Learning room at Avon East became a revolving door during St. Francis Universities Holiday Traditions Conference. Online from 7:30am to 3:30pm the students from twelve different classrooms took turns participating in discussions from presenters from around the world.

The students enjoyed time spent with Santa as well as the opportunity to learn how communities from around the world celebrate the holidays. We look forward to participating in this great program again in 2007.

Thanks again St. Francis University

Shipwrecked students perform their chapters with partner schools

Mrs. Friedell’s third grade students from Heritage North participated in a collaborated readers theater of their chapters on their story shipwrecked as part of the Chapter Project with Independence and Fremont. The students took turns performing their chapter and their conclusions. All three of the classes were loaded with props and costumes showing great efforts and pride in their chapters.

Once the stories were completed the students shared their favorite parts from each others performances. The students had great comments and shared some interesting comments. The classes did a great job and all enjoyed the project.

Mrs. Clark’s class shares artifacts with their partner school in the UK

The third graders in Mrs. Clarks get a better understanding of their community while learning about the United Kingdom through a virtual artifact exchange. The classes have been exchanging clues about their location for the past couple of weeks and completed the project through the sharing of artifacts brought in by the students that represent their communities.

The Students used the document camera and scripts created by the students to identify the object and how it relates to our community. The students brought in Ohio State, Cleveland and Avon icons to give the students from Banford a better understanding of our community and why Avon is a great place to live.

The artifacts presented by the students from Bamford a suburban community outside of London were great representations of their city. The Avon students loved seeing the items from Bamford and how similar their communities were.

The classes look forward to starting a new project with their partner school.

Gingerbread baby visits Miss Lavelle’s with the Center of Puppetry Arts

The second grade students from Miss Lavelle’s class were treated to the Holiday program the Gingerbread Baby from the Center of Puppetry Arts in Atlanta Georgia. The class looked at the many different versions the Gingerbread family from locations from around the world. The class enjoyed a great performance of the Gingerbread Baby with shadow puppets.

Once the story was complete the students created stick puppets to make their own shadow puppets. This activity was a great Holiday session that reinforced listening and reading skills. The students created their own versions of Gingerbread boy using their puppets.

Avon Multi Media Students complete in Henkle Duct Tape commercial contest

Mr. Garvelink’s Multimedia students participated in the regional judging of the Henkle Duct Tape commercial contest. The Avon students submitted nine sixty second commercials featuring Henkle Duct Tape. There were construction workers, super hero’s and monks demonstrating the multiple uses of duct tape and why Henkle stands above them all.

While all of the entries were entertaining and demonstrated the hard work of the students; only one commercial could advance to the State Finals. This year the Monks from Holy Trinity advance representing the Avon Schools.

Thanks the Henkle Duct Tape Company the students are treated to a real world activity and get a chance to compete with classes from around the state. The winning commercial of the State competition receives a Cannon GL2 video camera for their school. We wish the Eagles luck in the State judging.

Magnolia shares chapter 1 of Magic in a Sack a collaborative writing project

Avon’s partner class in Magnolia Texas shared the first chapter of the classes collaborative story. The students from Mrs. Lasater’s 4th grade class read their chapter over the video system and answered questions about the characters to help the Avon students prepare the second chapter.

The interactive chapter story titled the Magic Sack is a four chapter book that is split between the two classes. After each chapter the classes connect over the video systems to share their progress, answer questions about characters and discuss predictions of future chapters. Completed chapters are placed on the project wiki hosted by www.wikispaces.com.

Check out the great efforts of the classes at http://avonmagnolia.wikispaces.com/

Amon Carter Museum uses art work to display the People of the Plains

Third graders from Avon Heritage South Elementary School discussed the people of the plains using reproduced painting with the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth Texas. While connected to the Nancy Strickland from the Amon Carter Museum the students in small groups looked over several of reproductions from their museum and broke the art work into themes. Nancy helped guide the students to a better understanding of the Indians in Planes through details in the paintings. The students broke the painting into themes of games, hunting, ceremonies protection. Each group shared details of the works they held as the camera viewed the exhibits in the museum.

Thanks to the Amon Carter Museum the students have a better understanding of what life was like back when the Indian Nations lived and traveled the plains.

Avon Students learn about the Sioux Nation with the Green Bush ESC

Several second grade classes developed a better understanding of Indian culture and history through an interactive lesson provided by Lisa Pride at the Green Bush ESC. Students discussed the many artifacts and their uses to identify the roles people played in the Sioux Nation. The students discussed the different forms of written communication and how important it was to Indian tribes throughout the world.

The students demonstrated their understanding of image writing by creating their own messages using examples provided by Lisa at Green Bush and some images of their own. The students tore paper backs to represent animal hides and wrote messages using pictures to their classmates. Once completed; the students shared their stories to the class and Mrs. Pride.

Reptiles and Amphibians invade Heritage South through Video Distance Learning

Mrs. Frank and Johnson’s third grade classes introduce reptiles and amphibians to their science classes with the Lorain County MetroParks. The students discussed the difference between mammals, amphibians and reptiles through several live examples. Leslie McNut did a great job explaining the difference between cold and warm blooded animals and the way they survive.

The students enjoyed the snapping turtles, snakes and toads that were placed in the document camera. The close up view from the camera provided the students a view the snakes scales, the toad’s skin and the bottom of the turtle shells. This provided students a better view of these animals than if there are at the nature center. One of the favorite parts of the session was watching the toad eat.

This session was one of the many great programs provided by the Lorain County MetroParks. To learn more about their programming you can visit them on the web at www.loraincountymetroparks.com/dlc.htm

Up In The Air Introduction of Students

Science students from Mrs. Neumann’s class at Avon MS meet their partner class at Amherst Steele HS. The classes will be sharing lessons and activities with each others schools. The HS students will be reinforcing their science curriculum through mini lessons with AMS. The AMS students plan to share information and lessons learned during the school year.

The first meeting of the classes gives the students a better understanding of the technology and the opportunity to meet the students they will be working with throughout the school year. The students introduced themselves to their partner school and asked questions about their schools and communities.

We are looking forward to working with Amherst HS this year.

LCDLC takes part in the world’s largest videoconference

Dave Miller and Paul Hieronymus were delighted to present at the Internet 2 Megaconference VII. We connected at 7:15 am and enjoyed wonderful music from the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Orchestra was fantastic and the dance performed was impressive. The audiences were treated to several great sessions from presenters from all over the world.

The LCDLC was honored to be selected as a presenter at 11:45 sharing our virtual college tour project. We provided the group an overview of our consortium, the project and shared a four minute video of last year’s session. Our fifteen minute of fame was a great way to share our efforts to the world.

Megaconference is a great program that provides students an opportunity to see presenters from around the world. Each year the program tops the previous years with dynamic and exciting presentations. The sessions are streamed online for viewing at any time.
Check out the Megaconfernece website at http://www.megaconference.org/

Fifth graders from Heritage North explore wetlands with Old Women Creek

Mrs. Meikle’s fifth grade science classes connected to the NOECA Intercom group for a presentation from Old Women Creek. The students identified the characteristics of wetlands and the animals that live in a wetland environment. The students were placed in groups of four with cards of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, plants and insects. Once broken into groups the students placed them into food chains for them to share with the presenter and their classmates.

After placing the items into their chains the students had to identify what would happen if that part of the food chain was missing and its effect to other parts of the wetlands. This lesson was a great reinforcement to our science curriculum.

Technology Toolbox – Yawn… Oh your PowerPoint is finished

Avon Middle School played host to schools from across the state of Ohio in a closer look at Microsoft PowerPoint. The Lorain County Distance Learning Consortium is offering professional development sessions to member schools and others on technology topics. The sessions are offered at 2:30 and 4:00pm to allow teachers at different ending times the opportunity to participate.

The PowerPoint sessions focused on making PowerPoint an interactive tool to enhance student learning. The teachers received several PowerPoint templates of games and activities that they could edit and use for remediation, review or assessment. As a finale a demonstration of MS Producer was provided to the teaches with a standard webcam.

To learn more about Technology Toolbox check out the offerings on the web at www.lcdlc.org/TechnologyToolbox.htm

Decision 2006 – The race for Governor makes a stop to Mr. Rowe’s class by videoconference.

Lee Fisher Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor made a scheduled stop at Orange High School to connect to over 15 schools via videoconference to discuss the race for governor. Students from across the state were able to ask live questions about the campaign and the role of Lieutenant Governor in Ohio’s government. Mr. Fisher meet with the students for over an hour discussing the state economy, education and many of the other hot topics in our state.

We wish more of our candidates were willing to meet with our students over videoconferencing. They do not realize that our students have a direct line to their voting parents. The schools that were able to take part in the videoconference well represented the states regional geography and the questions asked by the students represented their districts with pride.

The Avon Schools would like to thanks the Orange City Schools for hosting Mr. Fisher and Melissa Higgs-Horwell from the SCOCA consortium for organizing the event. We wish Mr. Fisher luck at the polls and hope to see him online again in the future.

Technology Toolbox – Yawn… Oh your PowerPoint is finished

Avon Middle School played host to schools from across the state of Ohio in a closer look at Microsoft PowerPoint. The Lorain County Distance Learning Consortium is offering professional development sessions to member schools and others on technology topics. The sessions are offered at 2:30 and 4:00pm to allow teachers at different ending times the opportunity to participate.

The PowerPoint sessions focused on making PowerPoint an interactive tool to enhance student learning. The teachers received several PowerPoint templates of games and activities that they could edit and use for remediation, review or assessment. As a finale a demonstration of MS Producer was provided to teaches with a standard webcam.

To learn more about Technology Toolbox check out the offerings on the web at www.lcdlc.org/TechnologyToolbox.htm

Careers in Architecture

Avon High School students in Mr. Lindway’s Tech Ed Class provided his students career programming through videoconferencing with WVIZ PBS 25. Robert W. Blatchford Jr. President of Lesko Architecture in Cleveland provided students with back ground information about the field of architecture the current projects he is involved with in the Cleveland area.

This session was perfect timing with our class. Mr. Lindway’s students had just completed their bridge project. Each student drafted their own design which was later constructed out of balsa wood. The completed bridges were tested with weights. The a architecture discussion was a fitting conclusion to their project.