Nan Lombardo
I marvel at how my students' presentations evolve into exhibitions throughout the year – how in the beginning the audience is our self-contained classroom, and at the end they are presenting to community members and district personnel. We just dedicated a nature trail at our school as a feature of our environmental study site that we are developing. From contacting the media to escorting our guests from a local nursing home, my students who were on the dedication team were in charge. The recommendation team worked closely with the presentation team to put the proposed management plan into place, which was then presented to the director of facilities and planning of the district. Their process along with the final product will also be posted not only on our class web page, but also on the Washington Forest Protection Association web site.

The biggest obstacles to integrating technology into the curriculum have been timing issues – scheduling, then retrieving the presentation device, connecting the units so that all the equipment recognizes the link, batteries that are full for the digitals, getting the amplifier for the portable microphone and finding the time to put it all together – then celebrate! Together, my students and I have learned to either go over, around or right through the walls.

Julie Botel
Every teacher has email and it is becoming part of the culture. Even though we are still struggly in with integrating technology into the curricullum. At least teachers are using email to connect up with other people. They are using it routinely. Principals are using it routinely. I'm proud of the access we've given kids in the community. We have a wireless ibook lab in the public library. We have a mentor, teacher and tutor there­ all bilingual. Now at the library, students have access to skills as well as tools through 18 station in a desktop lab. The ibooks go out on loan and our 8th grade teachers are assignig LA actiities that require students to go to the library and check out an ibook to use to access the Internet at home, or to use a desktop machine there. We have a metropolitan area network that connects all out schools with 10mg access to the Internet with all our public owned municipal buildings. Our own public electric company ran the wire and we share the cost. That has given us a lot of poitns of access to what's happening in the city. The greatest obstacle to using technology is that people don't see it as tool that will let them and their students to do some things better. There's not a lot of project based learning going on yet. We don't' treat the student as a worker. The district has adopted the CES model in all of its 14 schools, so we are moving in the direction of thinking of our students as worker and our teachers as coaches, helping students show what they understand through exhiitions. As that becomes part of our culture, people will see the value of the technology.

Kathy Conway
When students are researching a science problem some students will persevere and sort out the puzzle pieces, untangle the web. Many others quickly, raise their hands in frustration, ready to give up. I decided that teaching problem solving techniques was something that could be life-long and worthwhile. Technology was a means to getting the students started. How to put the pieces of the puzzle together so it made sense was something everyone needed to know. Learning to solve puzzles was indeed a life-long pursuit. So I convinced the students they would become researchers and their task would be to study a real-life scenario, define the problem and find solutions. First of all, they would need to find the puzzle pieces. They would accumulate bits of data with the help of Internet resources and community experts. Time would show that they could find their own scientists and experts via the links in the technological world.

Small, student-initiated research projects can do much to introduce the nature of science to students. Finding the right path in pursuit of a solution or answer can be very rewarding. Using the computer and its resources to help do this can be enriching. Both computing and problem-based learning skills interlock and can lead a student to becoming a good independent thinker. It takes time and patience.

I often use a little puzzle on my overheads as I give the daily briefing before the teams go to their tasks. This little puzzle is my subtle way of saying that students will need to find the pieces and discover how they fit on their own. However, any experienced teacher knows that getting students to stand on their own feet requires spending some time holding their hand with those first steps. The time and energy I expend in preparing the foundation for integrating the technology and getting ready the things students need to help them succeed is immense. What you see in the classroom is just the tip of the iceberg.

Asking the right question opens the doors. The biggest hurdle for the students is to find that question and state that problem. They spend hours searching online, building a database of information that they must sort through and accept, reject, process, edit the pieces.Intuition and hunch are not foreign to science; therefore, we need to teach students to expect the unexpected.

My students and their problems are like puzzle pieces. All students do not learn the same way. I must sort, guide and fit the pieces into place. The pieces must work together and interlock to make a picture. One piece depends on the other. The pieces must work cooperatively. This interdependence sets the stage for life-long learning.

Deborah Peek-Brown
I have the most wonderful job in the world. As a resource teacher for the Center for Learning Technologies in Urban Schools (letus), I help teachers change their teaching. The letus program is an NSF funded partnership between Detroit Public Schools, University of Michigan, Chicago Public Schools and Northwestern University. This partnership was developed support the reform efforts in urban schools by bringing the use of integrated, innovative learning tools into middle science classrooms. As teachers begin to integrate the use of technology in their instruction, they find the old strategies just don't work anymore. Things in the classroom are not as predictable as they were before. It may not be as quiet as it was before. Teachers have to change the way they think about teaching and learning.

I work in 20 middle schools in Detroit supporting teachers as they begin to change their practices and integrate the use of technology. I go into the classroom and help teachers feel comfortable with the technology. I also plan professional development activities to allow teachers to share strategies for successful implementation of the tools. Change isn't always an easy thing but, it can be a good thing. Seeing the growth in teachers and the excitement for learning generated in students is the most rewarding part of my job!

Angela Cristini
For the last three years the third Monday in May has been one of my favorite days. As the Director of the Master of Science in Educational Technology Program (MSET) at Ramapo College I have the pleasure of asking my students to come forward to receive their diplomas and place their Master's Hoods over their heads as they beam smiles to friends and relatives. The MSET Program grew out of two Teacher Enhancement Projects funded by the National Science Foundation and the New Jersey Department of Education. The first was a grant for Science Teaching using Remote Sensing Technology, (RST)2 fusing meteorology with problems of local interest and national or global concerns. Its unique use of software to manipulate satellite images and incorporate real-time data, coupled with weather map analysis and current local conditions, replicates on a desk top computer what the National Weather Service does as part of its daily forecasting operations.

The project has produced student-centered, teacher-complemented, and family-focused education materials that use meteorology/climate studies to help drive science and science/mathematics integration in grades 4 - 6. This was followed by Watershed studies to recognize that the quality of life on this planet is inextricably linked to the quality of the environment – specifically the watershed where students live. Not everyone lives near a pond or a stream, but everyone in the world lives in a watershed; everyone depends on a watershed for drinking water. Studies focus on remotely sensed images; student-collected environmental data; and historical data sets. They are integrated using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) that allow students to interact with the data for problem-solving and prediction. Teachers and students engaged in this project utilize GIS software systems that are used by environmental scientists, planners, and governments throughout the world.

Students from (RST)2 schools have been invited to make presentations about the Program at the National Education Summit – where they met President Clinton; the New Jersey Business Education Summit – where they lunched with Governor Whitman; and to the New Jersey State Board of Education – where they candidly told the Board not to be surprised by the things regular 6th grade students could learn about their world using technology – if given the opportunity. As the MET and grant funded programs have evolved over the last six years the explosion of technology has made electronic communication and use of the Web routine. The glut of information available to students and educators presents a new series of challenges in insuring that information is accurate, supports the curricular objectives; and that CONTENT RULES. Educators and the students they teach are immersed in amazing arrays of tempting technologies everywhere they turn in society. Yet, there still are many educational settings where technological tools are not readily available to all that have the desire to learn to use them. This obstacle continues as a major source of frustration to teachers in our programs, particularly from poor urban and rural districts.