| Description | We are small school in the suburbs of Seattle with a small coniferous forest on our campus. Our students are very interested in the insect world and would be very excited to study them on an electron microscope. Last year students raised parasitic wasps. This year they are raising Phasmids, specifically northwestern native Walking Sticks. These two insects would be of great interest to all students. In addition, we have studied human botfly, head and body lice, mites, houseflies, and crickets. Any or all of these insects would be excellent choices. Due to the forest in the back of the school, we have a very diverse insect population. We are a very science-oriented school. All students study through 20x dissecting scopes and 40x-140x compound scopes so the electron microscopy activity would be relevant to their ongoing studies. In addition, we try to make the connection between art, science and technology. We study great artists and scientists such as Leonardo Da Vinci. Our students will make the connection between the patterns of the microscopic world, the local environment, the world and the universe by drawing and sculpting the images from the activities. An important part of our math curriculum is measurement. Two of the most important and exciting components to this are the students measuring very small and very large distances. Astronomy and microscopy both efficiently lend themselves to studying these concepts. Though the second part of the application did not allow me to specify the non-listed ASDL Internet Network format, I'm sure we can participate. We have used Java in the past to track the space shuttle through the NASA web site. We have no filtering software. In our computer lab we have enough terminals networked for an entire class. The computer science teacher and I would be able to effectively monitor all students as they experienced the electron microscope. All students keep a notebook for both computer science and science so they will also take notes as they proceed, or as their peers are proceeding. |
