Here’s a little videoconference report from Sturgis, South Dakota. Recently a class there participated in a math mystery called The Milton Mansion Mystery from the Athena Excellence in Cities Education Zone.

Here’s the program description from Athena:

Join the famous detective Sherbet Holmes in his quest to find out who stole the Milton Mansion Diamond. The pupils are ably guided through the investigation by Advanced Skills Teacher Jaz Dhillon. At key points in their investigation pupils get to meet the famous detective who enlists their help in order to piece together the evidence and to identify the culprit, their motives and their modus operandi.

The teacher commented,

I felt the results of the project to this point meet or have exceeded my expectations. … I feel this should be an on going part of the course work for sixth grade and possibly be developed into something more with students from each site communicating with one another. It also fits nicely in a across the curriculum activity for the sixth grade. … I would be very open to using VC’ing again and on a yearly basis. The opportunities that it allows for the students and instructors is endless and life-lasting.

This sounds like a really cool program and one that I’m hoping our schools can do soon! Remember when you’re scheduling videoconferences with the United Kingdom that they are 5 hours ahead of EST; +6 for CST; +7 for MT; +8 for PST. So you might need to be flexible and thoughtful in scheduling this one! Click this link: Athena Excellence in Cities Education Zone for a list of all their programs as well as scheduling details.

This morning we’re trying out another provider we haven’t visited before — The Indiana Repertory Theatre. They’ve been doing distance learning for quite a while and I could tell from the beginning that this would be a good program. St. Joseph High School English students are participating in the program, Exploring Shakespeare. The presenter and teacher interacted quite a bit via email and phone before the program to tailor it to the teacher’s curriculum.

The program began with great conversation and interaction to set the students at ease. Then the presenter read a monologue “boringly” as if she was reading homework. Students had a hard time figuring it out. Then she read it again with expression and a prop. Students quickly figured it out.

The program included students trying different scenes in Shakespearan English and modern English. This helped students understand the emotion behind the Shakespeare scenes.

Discussion included comedy vs. tragedy, plot devices, writing style differences between comedy and tragedy.

Another exercise included a “Red Rover” argument exercise where students read sassy lines between Petruccio and Kate from the Taming of the Shrew. The students really got into the program.

Discussion also included how and why Shakespeare used verse and iambic pentameter.

This was a great program. I think it’s the first time I’ve seen a high school program where students are getting up and moving around. Nice interaction between the provider and students and also between students during the program. Definitely worth it for Shakespeare classes!

Today we’re trying out another content provider we haven’t connected to before — The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We have a class from Lighthouse Education Center participating in the program, Rock and Roll Reactions: Records, Radio and the Birth of Teenage Culture in 1950s America.

The program started with pictures of various music groups and the students had to identify them. Great opener as the students who were sitting with crossed arms quickly started answering questions and interacting.

What a great way to learn about history and what it was like to live in the 1950s. A nice set of pictures, video clips, and audio clips helped students understand that decade.

This would be a great program for Black History Month because it also shows the history of racial segregation in the music industry and what life was like just before the Civil Rights movement.

Students really enjoyed this program. At the end, the teacher told the presenter that this was the best program they had attended out of 4 or 5 different videoconference field trips. So, you should try out this provider if you haven’t connected to them yet!

Today we’re doing our first program with a new content provider, the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. Sixth grade students from Patrick Hamilton are doing the Ice Age Geology program. Jason Dennison used to be distance learning coordinator at the Milwaukee Public Museum. He’s doing the presentation today. I like to judge videoconferences by the students’ posture during the program. These kids were leaning forward and clearly interesting and engaged in the program. Jason included many questions, discussions, and other interactions during the program.

Another way I judge VCs is by the visual content. Since it’s a visual medium, we expect to see some good things! Jason included many visuals to explain morains, straiations, and other evidences of glaciers. I especially liked the rock simulation shown where he showed how the glaciers make the different types of morains.

It was great to see also how well prepared the students were. They were aware of the content and had thoughtful questions to ask the presenter.

This morning 2nd and 3rd grade music students from Eagle Lake Elementary are connecting to the Cleveland Institue of Music for their Spellers of Note program.

CIM is wonderful at how they get students engaged right away in the program. Mark George had the students telling what they knew about music and Mozart, and as they answered, someone played music or sang off screen. It was very fun and you could tell the students loved it.

Students also sang with the presenter and the ensemble, and the students also presented a play they had prepared ahead of time.

This program was definitely well designed for young students. There’s lots of variety and interaction in the program. I highly recommend it!

Today Eagle Lake Elementary, Edwardsburg, is connecting to a new content provider we haven’t connected to before: Camden Children’s Garden. The 2nd grade students are learning about soil.

The presenter, Betsy Payne, engaged the students right away in questions and answers about soil. A little video clip showed the worms in the soil. As you can see in the picture, they have an attractive background for the presenter. The program includes many different types of visuals which makes it very interesting.

The students also made predictions about an experiment demonstrated by the presenter and then watched to see if their predictions came true. This helped to increase their understanding of how much water soil can hold.

Camden has a nice set of programs tailored specifically to several different grade levels. They also offer their programs in Spanish or English! We’ll be connecting here again for sure!

Today Lighthouse Education Center students are connecting to NASA Live. This is our first connection with this provider. The students are doing the program, Flight: The Four Forces.

As part of the program, students are making several different types of paper airplanes (vehicles) and learning about the way they fly. I love how the presenter says, “The airport is closed” (or open), so that students know when they can test their vehicle.

In addition, students asked career and flying related questions of the presenter who has flown 40 different types of aircraft. He has over 5000 hours of flight time and has landed aircraft both on water and land.

We really enjoyed this program and will definitely be connecting to NASA Live again in the future!

Today we had two great videoconferences with two of our favorite content providers.

New Buffalo Middle School students connected today (and this past Wednesday) to COSI Toledo to learn about the states of matter, in the program Heart of the Matter. Even though the students were a bit shy and didn’t want to talk, the interactive program drew them into the experiments and activities designed to help them understand the states of matter.

This afternoon we have 2nd graders connecting to the Columbus Zoo and they are learning about nocturnal animals. Students are doing hands-on activities and looking at different animals while they learn what senses and adaptations animals use to survive while they are awake during the night. I can hear from the kids’ reactions that they are really enjoying the program!