CS92 Project Pool and Initial Project Descriptions

Spring, 1999 -- Brown University
January 28, 1999 -- Blumberg
http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs092/cs92.pool99.html


Elementary Education

Middle and Secondary Education

Higher Education (Brown University)


School: Blessed Sacrament
Teacher: Beth Wheeler
Audience:3rd Grade Spelling and Grammar Usage
Project: Wheeler is interested in using the computer to help students transfer spelling and grammar skills from their lessons to their written works. She is thinking about a program that would allow and encourage students to edit and correct spelling and grammatical errors, and has suggested a student newspaper program/contest/game of some sort. A serious constraint is that the dozen computers in the Macintosh Lab at Blessed Sacrament all have only 4MB of RAM, and that Blessed Sacrament is slowly migrating to the PC platform. Hyperstudio seems the tool of choice for this project, and last year's Seminar included a very successful program, Pizarro's Haunted Mansion, for the First Graders at Blessed Sacrament.
Comments: This is a challenging project because of the RAM restrictions, the platform constraints, and because of the content; the goal is to make something that motivates students to apply and develop their skills more effectively than they would with paper and pencil.


School: Vartan Gregorian Elementary School
Teacher: Dianne Maranhas
Audience: 3rd grade.
Project: Vartan Gregorian Elementary, formerly Fox Point Elementary, is a "core knowledge" school, with a well-articulated, sequential curriculum in history. Ms. Maranhas' classroom has 2 Macintosh computers and 1 PC, and she is interested in having an application that students can use to explore some of the topics covered in the 3rd grade American history (e.g. Colonial Life and the beginnings of the American Revolution). She says the reading skills of her students are not always at grade level, so she is looking for something that uses visualization in creative and effective ways. Possible tools are Hyperstudio, Authorware, and HTML (to run locally), and there is ample opportunity for classroom observation and excellent access to curricular materials.
Comments: This is an excellent project for folks interested in the dynamics of the elementary classroom, and fitting innovative software ideas to well-defined curriculum. The challenge of the "one computer classroom" is enormous, but so is the potential for a good application to make a real difference in student learning at the elementary level. There is also an interesting opportunity to coordinate work on this project with last year's "Campaign Trail" program, which was designed for 4th graders at "The Greg."


School: Vartan Gregorian Elementary School
Teacher: Claudia Pietros
Audience: Art classes, grades 2-5
Project: As mentioned above, Vartan Gregorian Elementary, is a "core knowledge" school, with a well-articulated, sequential curriculum. Ms. Pietros is the Art teacher, and does innovative work at integrating the topics and activities of her students with the subjects they are studying in their academic classes at the School. She is looking for a program that will develop the curriculum she uses to teach the basics of architecture, from Colonial architecture (2nd and 3rd grade) to contemporary architecture (5th grade), that students could use both during their Art periods and independently. Ms. Pietros has access to 1-3 PCs in her "classroom" (and Vartan Gregorian has computers in various classrooms, in addition to a PC Lab that will be completed this semester). Possible tools include are Hyperstudio, Authorware, and HTML (to run locally), and there is ample opportunity for classroom observation.
Comments: This is a challenging project for people interested in possibilities of computers in arts education, and in designing innovative software to fit pre-existing curriculum.


School: Vartan Gregorian Elementary School
Teacher: Claudia Pietros
Audience: Art classes, grades 3 and 5
Project: Another Art education project from Vartan Gregorian, the theme this time being "Masks", about which Ms. Pietros teaches students during their 3rd grade and 5th grade studies. She is looking for a program to integrate cultural, historical, as well as artistic issues concerning the use of masks in various cultures and, as in the previous project, she would like a program that students could use both during their Art periods and independently. Ms. Pietros has access to 1-3 PCs in her "classroom" (and Vartan Gregorian has computers in various classrooms, in addition to a PC Lab that will be completed this semester). Possible tools include are Hyperstudio, Authorware, and HTML (to run locally), and there is ample opportunity for classroom observation. Comments: This is a great opportunity for people interested not only in the use of computers in art education, but in ways to integrate different disciplinary approaches to subject matter using the computer.


School: Hasbro Children's Hospital
Teacher: Susan Cicchini
Audience: Elementary School children in the Hospital
Project: Hasbro Children's Hospital has an elementary school classroom in which hospitalized children can keep up with their studies in school. Although the focus of the classroom activities is generally not on medicine-related issues, Ms. Cicchini says that students who are awaiting trips to the operating room for one reason or another (e.g. MRIs, X-rays, surgery) are often very anxious about it, and she is looking for a program that students could use to learn about what (and who) to expect when they go to the OR at Hasbro for various procedures. There are 2 Pentium PCs that are part of the elementary school "classroom" at Hasbro, and possible tools include Hyperstudio, Authorware and HTML (to run locally).
Comments: For this project you will work with Ms. Cicchini and her students, as well as with a social worker who specializes in helping children deal with their concerns and questions about being in the hospital. It seems like a fascinating opportunity to create an informative and anxiety-alleviating program, with explanations and graphics designed especially for young children.


School: Hasbro Childrens Hospital
Teacher: Jeffrey Crocker
Audience: ESL students, grades 6-12
Project: Mr. Crocker's "classroom" is an interesting learning environment, because so many subjects and age groups are being taught, and Mr. Crocker has no idea who will arrive in his "class" the next day, what they are studying in school, or what their ability levels will be. He is looking for a program that would follow something like a secondary school Elementary Spanish curriculum, that students could use either in the classroom or in their rooms, to learn and improve basic spelling and grammar usage in English and Spanish. There are 3 Pentium PCs that are part of the secondary school "classroom" at Hasbro, and 1 has Internet access. A CD-ROM has been used to teach vocabulary in several languages to the students who find themselves at Hasbro, but Mr. Crocker would like software that would teach and test students on basic English and Spanish grammar skills, particularly students who are native Spanish speakers. Computer-based flashcards are of course possible, but Mr. Crocker is looking for something more innovative and effective. The program needs to be designed for classroom and bedside instruction, group and individual use. Finally, the program needs to be designed with the understanding that most students are not at Hasbro long enough to complete large units of content. Possible tools include Hyperstudio, Authorware and HTML (to run locally).
Comments: This is a very challenging environment for "schooling", and an interesting audience for which to create a well-designed and effective program that teaches basic English and Spanish skills.


School: The Moses Brown School
Teacher: Laurie Center, Matt Hill
Audience: 5th grade English and Media Lab
Project: A teacher and the Technology Coordinator at Moses Brown want to create a database with a Web-based interface for fifth graders to record and share their thoughts and evaluations of books they read. They want more than one student to be able to access the program simultaneously, and want to include some sort of search function as well. The School and many of the students have excellent computing resources as well as access to the Internet. Possible tools include HTML/Java, HTML/CGI, Authorware, and even Filemaker Pro.
Comments: A good opportunity to design something effective and versatile for young students, in a resource-rich school environment. The challenge here will be to embed some of the teacher's instructional goals and perspectives into the interface and program.


School: Classical High School
Teacher: Andrea Krida and Adam Blumenthal
Audience: Honors English, grade 11
Project: Ms. Krida's 11th Grade Honors English class has recently completed a Scarlet Letter criticism assignment in which several groups of three students evaluated three chapters each, and developed very creative (hard copy) commentaries including text and graphics. Andrea's assignment was open-ended with respect to what to look for, and how to present the work, but the following were among a list of things that could be considered: symbolism, foreshadow, character analysis, vocabulary, repetitive word significance, and chapter title significance. Stylistically the group work takes many forms, for example resembling multi-column newspaper-like formats. The work is insightful, graphical, fun, readable, and innovative. Together, the combined work of all the groups resembles a scrapbook of varied styles. Ms. Krida, and the Technology Coordinator at Classical, Adam Blumenthal, are looking for a program that will create an expandable, effective Web-based electronic book, based on the materials already developed. The "program" would be for use by students in classrooms, computer labs and at home. Possible tools include HTML/Java, HTML/CGI, and HTML/Hyperstudio.
Comments: The project presents interesting challenges for creating a successful, expandable, acadmic Hypermedia environment.


School: Brown University
Teacher: Jack Hermance
Audience: Undergraduates in GE 158
Project: The concept of a "watershed" is as fundamental to the science of hydrology as is the "atom" to physics and chemistry. It is the indivisible building block for understanding the dynamics for the movement of water through Earth's and humankind's systems. Professor Hermance proposes an interactive conceptual module illustrating the fundamental elements of a generic watershed that are accessible to the client on an intuitive level; then to apply these concepts to the Blackstone River Watershed -- one of the principal sources of fresh water delivered to Narragansett Bay. Mathematical details should be transparent to the client. The product will be an interactive walk-through, fly-through three dimensional representation following the path of a single raindrop as it falls, striking the Earth's surface, moving into the subsurface, rising to generate stream flow, perhaps flooding along the banks of various tributaries, and finally flowing into the ocean. This is for a Brown University class on physical hydrology (GE 158), and will likely be developed for dissemination on a CD-Rom. The project may also involve rescaling the content for presentation to a more general audience on the Web, as well as making certain of the concepts accessible to middle and high school students. Possible tools include HTML/Java, Authorware and Director.
Comments: This is an ambitious project that provides an excellent opportunity to work closely with a Brown faculty member and his students to create a graphically sophisticated, effective learning resource in Environmental Geophysics/Hydrology.


School: Brown University
Teacher: Barbara Gourlay
Audience: International Teaching Assistants in Chemistry
Project: To create a pronunciation modeling program of key terminology that international graduate students could use on their own (in the Brown Clusters or at home) to help master pronunciation of terms drawn from their discipline (in this case Chemistry). Professor Gourlay envisions a combination database and video archiving system, with an interface for each family of terms that would allow users to quickly invoke video models of native English speakers pronouncing the terms, phrases or sentences being practiced. Possible tools include Authorware, Director, HTML/Java and Filemaker Pro.
Comments: This is an interesting project in ESL that tries to address the difficult problem of improving the English of speakers who have difficulty hearing phonemic differences. There will be excellent support the Language Lab and ample opportunity for student observation and testing.


School: Brown University
Teacher: Liljana Elverskog
Audience: Undergraduate students of Arabic
Project: One of the biggest problems in teaching Arabic is case endings, usually called "final vowels," which are a grammatical feature not used often in spoken language but very important in certain forms of the written language. There are only 6 possible case endings in Arabic, but the reasons for their use are many. Professor Elverskog would like a program in which students will have an Arabic text without final vowels, and will be asked to write them in; the program would check the correctness of the student's work and offer explanations as needed/requested.
Possible tools include Authorware, Director, Hyperstudio, or HTML/Java.
Comments: A good project for someone interested in language studies and/or Arabic language and literature, and a great opportunity to create a simple, effective program that would be widely used.


School: Brown University School of Medicine
Teacher: Meredith Goodwin, M.D.
Audience: Medical Students in the Family Medicine Clerkship
Project: Part of the Family Medicine Clerkship at Brown is devoted to teaching students how to ask appropriate questions and take good medical histories during encounters with patients. Dr. Goodwin has developed a simple set of Web pages that give students an idea of questions and answers for several case studies, but she would like something more effective and interactive, perhaps something more like the "Interactive Patient" program developed at Marshall University (http://medicus.marshall.edu/medicus.htm). Possible tools include HTML/CGI, HTML/Java, Authorware and Director.
Comments: Helping Medical students to interact with patients effectively is a great challenge, and this project is an excellent opportunity to create a valuable teaching tool with materials and help from Dr. Goodwin and the Family Medicine Department at Pawtucket Memorial Hospital.


School: Brown University
Teacher: Roger Mayer
Audience:Students in VA 10
Project: Last year, a group of students in the Seminar created a Web-based program for Professor Mayer called Color Theory. This year he would like to expand the program to include a complex tiling unit. He writes that he wants to the user to be able to "develop a complex modular design in which the experience of the first two parts might be applied. This entails developing geometric or free form designs in individual modules which would then hold mixtures of color to be ramped to other locations in the larger modular design. These ramps should be able to flow horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. Other directions might also be explored (e.g. a spiral). The component would entail a drawing/design program that is linked to the very useful color chooser of last years project." Mayer would also like the project team to use student feedback on the current version of the program (which they will use during the 4th and 5th week of the semester) to revise and improve the version of Color Theory that was completed last year. As the current versions of the programs are written in HTML and Java it is very likely that the additional module will be as well.
Comments: This is a great opportunity for both programming and design, and it's the first time we will try to build on and improve a project completed in a previous year. This is a challenging project with interesting programming and user-study components.


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