RE : too quick to use computers, I had a wonderful opposite experience recently in
my library. We are in a brand new school, brand new library - and student
computers have not yet arrived. I decided, as part of our opening celebration, to
run a contest: "What Mrs. Burstein did on her summer vacation." Since we had
visited the Eisenhower Locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway, I posted a picture of one
of the big lake ships going through the lock, and also mentioned that the Robert
Moses Park in Massena, right near the lock was on the 45th parallel. My question
was : What is special about the 45th parallel?
Without the www, the students who discovered the contest (I did not announce it
over the loudspeaker, but figured I would "save" it for my regular patrons) hit
almanacs, encyclopedias, dictionaries, books reference and otherwise, and finally,
the globe. I did not give any hints except to tell them to find all of the
meanings of the world parallel, since they were guessing that the answer was that
it was parallel to the St. Lawrence Seaway. They also had to get by red herrings
such as the fact that there is more than one Robert Moses State Park in NY State.
Finally, by eye-balling the globe, 3 of the students who were sort of working
together, found the answer - it is halfway between the north pole and the equator.
I just wish that I had my video camera going while they were searching. It was
such a pleasure to watch them figure it out on their own instead of letting google
do it for them.
--
Susan Burstein
Portland Middle School
95 High Street
Portland, CT 06480
portlandms@comcast.net
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