DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE. Send your replies to the
email address of the project author listed below.
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Author Email: Robette McLellan <rmclellan@standrews.k12.la.us>
Project Information
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Project Title: Investigating Neighborhoods and Communities
Project Begin & End Dates: 2/14/00 to 4/01/00
Project Summary:
Participating students will conduct surveys about their class' preferences
and prepare maps of their school neighborhood. The project site will
compile data from the surveys into graphs and compare the submitted maps.
The survey results and written conclusions will be exchanged with
participating schools using Email. Each participant will have the
opportunity to learn what makes urban, rural, and suburban communities
unique.
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Project Details
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Project Level: Basic
Curriculum Area: Community Interest, History and Social Studies,
Information Technology, Mathematics
Technologies Used: Email
Full Project Description:
The project involves the following sequence of activities:
Phase One: What is a community? - Begins Feb. 14
The concept of community is introduced by studying the local community
surrounding the school. Possible activities include going on a walking tour
of the neighborhood around the school and recording observations or viewing
a web site about your community. The concept of types of communities should
be introduced and the characteristics of urban, suburban, and rural
communities should be described. You will need to classify your own
community as one of these types.
Phase Two: Data Collection and Exchange - Begins Feb. 21
You will need to conduct six surveys in your classroom and submit the
results via electronic mail. The survey questions are: What are your
favorite outdoor activities?; How many children are in your family?; How do
you get to school?; In what kind of dwelling do you live?; What is your
favorite after school activity?; and What time do you wake up on school
days?. The survey questions will help the students to better understand how
life might be different in different types of communities. You will need to
submit the results of your surveys by February 29.
The project site school will compile all of the data collected and sort it
by community type (rural, urban, suburban). The results will be presented
in a bar graph for each survey question. Each participating school will
receive all of the graphs either by electronic mail or by snail mail,
whichever you prefer.
Phase Three: Map-Making and Exchange -Begins March 1
Your class will need to prepare a map of your school neighborhood. Choose a
small area such as one square block around your school. Students should
observe the area carefully and record important information such as street
names, types and names of buildings, location of street lights, green
spaces, etc. Then, decide what method of map-making will work best for your
class. Students could work in cooperative groups to produce hand-drawn maps
of the area. The class could collectively draw, cut and paste, or paint a
larger paper map of the area or you could use map-creation software such as
Tom Synderís Neighborhood Map Machine. Your map should include a title, map
key, and compass rose. Then submit your map to the project site school by
either regular mail, or if you have a computer-generated map, by e-mail.
All maps should be submitted by March 10.
Phase Four: Conclusions - March 20
The project site school will compare and contrast the maps from the urban,
rural, and suburban communities. The students at the project site school
will synthesize the maps and the graphs of the survey results to develop
written conclusions about each type of community. The written conclusions
will be disseminated to all participating school via e-mail. Each
participating classroom can then discuss the results and develop their own
ideas about the relationship between where people live and how people live.
Objectives:
Objectives:
Social Studies:
Students will develop an understanding of the relationship between where
people live and how they live.
Students will be able to identify and describe three types of
communities-urban, rural, suburban.
Students will develop respect for diverse communities by developing
relationships with other students from different communities.
Students will increase their map-reading skills by creating a neighborhood
map that uses a map key and compass rose.
Math:
Students will collect and analyze survey data.
Students will be able to create bar graphs to show data.
Students will be able to read a bar graph to gather information.
Technology:
Students will use e-mail to collect and analyze data and to share the
results of the project.
Students will use computer software to compile and synthesize data from
surveys into graphs.
Outcomes:
Students will be more actively engaged in their learning, and therefore
demonstrate improvement in concept development.
Students will acquire the basic technology skills needed to work on
projects in other disciplines throughout their school years.
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Project Registration Information
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Project Email Address: rmclellan@standrews.k12.la.us
Registration Acceptance Dates: 1/15/00 to 2/10/00
Number of Classrooms: 21
Age Range: 7 to 12 years
Target Audience: National (US)
Registration Instructions:
Special Registration Information:
Registration Acceptance Dates: January 15 - February 10
* You will be notified via e-mail of your acceptance.
Number of classrooms: 7 classes from each community type (urban, suburban,
rural) for a total of 21 classrooms.
Registration Instructions:
1. A class interested in participating should e-mail the project leader,
Robette McLellan at rmclellan@standrews.k12.la.us.
In the message include:
*Teacherís Name
*Name of your school
*Address of your school (city,state)
*Type of community (urban, rural, suburban)
*E-mail address where you want to receive communications.
*Alternate contact information
2. You will be notified of your acceptance to the project by February 10 at
the latest. You will also receive more specific directions about how to
move through each of the project phases at that time.
3. Begin Phase 1 on February 14.
4. You will be expected to check your e-mail at least once per week while
you participate in the project. You will also be expected to meet all
project deadlines.
5. If you have any questions or concerns, contact the project leader as
soon as possible at rmclellan@standrews.k12.la.us. Be sure to let the
leader know if you need to drop out of the project or if you will not be
able to meet a deadline.
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Project Contact Information
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Robette McLellan - mailto:rmclellan@standrews.k12.la.us
2nd grade teacher - St. Andrew's Episcopal School
http://www.standrews.k12.la.us
New Orleans, Louisiana
US