GDRSD Technology in the Classroom

This is a video recording of the "Technology in the Classrooms" presentation and demonstration that was given by Instructional Technology Specialist Cindy Larsen and others and the April 4 GDRSC meeting. It clearly demonstrates how technology can significantly enhance the learning experience for students within the district.

In the video:

• Ms. Larsen talks about how elementary are using a multimedia program called KidPix, and a weather simulator caleld Weather Maker to learn how relative humidity, polar temperature, and equatorial temperature affect our local weather conditions, and an online forum called MassOne to participate in discussions beyond the classroom.
• Middle school science teacher Caitlyn Entwistle and some of her students demonstrate how the Vernier data collection software and tools are being used to measure forces on bridges that the students design and construct using straws and pins. The readout clearly shows how a bridge structures responds to an increasing load in real time.
• Ellen Barkhuff, science curriclum coordinator at the high school, shows how the Vernier data collection software and tools are being used to measure supercooling of liquids. Because the device measures temperatures every 10th of a second, the resulting graph shows data that could not be recorded using more traditional methods of measuring temperature with a thermometer every thirty seconds.

All of the presenters thanked the Groton Dunstable Educational Foundation for financing the purchase of the Vernier data collection software and tools for the middle school and high school and noted that it helps bring the learning experience a lot closer to what goes on in today's lab environments, which now depend on this type of technology for doing tests and research.

[ The video was recorded from the Groton Channel, which provides regular broadcasts of all GDRSC meetings. These programs play on Channel 13 in Dunstable. ]