Leveraging Laptops Project|
This cross-age cross-curriculum project focused on integrating technology to accelerate science achievement (and concurrently reading) in three Pinellas County Schools, Florida (Pinellas Park High School, Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School, and Pinellas Park Elementary School). The aim was to close the achievement gap and bridge the digital divide to meet the needs of all students.
Six multi-age, collaborative student science projects were designed and implemented throughout the school year. Teachers worked together face-to-face and online using My eCoach across disciplines, grade levels and schools in project-specific Professional Learning Communities to create these projects.
Each school has a lead teacher and 15-25 mentor teachers. These teachers have each received a teacher presentation station consisting of a laptop and digital projector. The schools each received 5 mobile laptop labs, ipods and podcasting stations, Kurzweil software (designed to provide reading, writing and learning software for all students, regardless of ability), lab sensors and dataloggers for collecting and analyzing science data, digital cameras, web cams, and a classroom performance system to engage students in active learning.
Click on each tab above to learn about each of the projects: Living Relations, Weather, Ecology, Habits, Living Interactions, and Florida Native Plants. The teachers and students are very proud of their work and invite you to share your comments on the comments page.
More information about the project and grant