Final Report
Get Into Science
SIP 003
Introduction:
The project we have been working on for the past year and a half has been to create a
CD ROM that would be suitable for use in teaching science to first year students. We
are an all-girls, post primary, secondary school and we felt that we would be able to
use our skills to increase the use of IT to promote the uptake of science in our school
both at junior and leaving certificate level. We have always been a forward-looking
school and we felt that ICT skills in the school, among both staff and students, would
increase dramatically if we had a particular project to work on. In order to make this
project successful we decided to use a multimedia approach that would involve the
co-operation of staff and students from all parts of the school community. Students
from all years were involved and teachers from all disciplines, not just science, were
involved in the design and production of our CD ROM.
Background:
About two years ago we became aware of the new government initiative known as
IT2000 and, in particular, the schools integration project, or SIP. It was a golden
opportunity for our school, which has always been open to new ideas and
opportunities, to continue to expand its IT resources. We had just received 14 new
computers under the Hewlett Packard K12 programme and felt that to get the most
from ourselves and our students we needed a target or challenge that would allow us to
stretch ourselves and develop new skills. With this in mind we set about completing
our school IT plan, which was a pre-requisite for applying for SIP, and looking into
various possible activities we could use as our SIP project. We wanted a project that
was possible to complete so that we would not become frustrated and disillusioned yet
we wanted to try something we had not done before. Within our school we have used
many different teaching resources over the years, and one, which has proven itself, has
been the use of audio-visual material. The introduction of the transition year program
to our school in recent years has meant that many teachers have had to draft their own
courses and syllabi and to develop their own resources for their implementation. This
led us to wonder if we could use IT to develop material that would provide teachers
and students with a new resource that would bring together many different tools in a
multi-media CD ROM.
At this time there was also a lot of concern being expressed by the government and
other agencies about the lack of uptake of science subjects, particularly chemistry and
physics, at leaving certificate level. In our school all first year students study science
and home economics but they must choose only one going into second year. Usually,
slightly over half the students opt for science. At leaving certificate level we offer
chemistry, physics and biology. The uptake of biology is very high, about 85-90%, but
chemistry has a much lower uptake, at only about 10% and physics a little less again at
only 8%. This is quite similar to countrywide trends. We felt that if we could
encourage more students to keep on science at the end of first year we might be able to
increase the chances of more students studying science subjects all through second
level to leaving certificate. Also we noticed that the weaker students, in general,
tended to select home economics often because they felt that, even though science was
interesting, it was for "brain-boxes" only. We hoped that we would be able to change
this perception with our SIP project.
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This gave rise to the proposal that we make a CD ROM that would be useful in
teaching science to first year students. We had never tried this before but we thought it
must be possible as we had heard about "CD burners" and "multimedia CD ROMs"
and thought we would like to try to make our own CD. There were many CD's
available at the time that were based on the English education curriculum and were
only partly suitable for our courses so we felt that there was a gap in the market that
both we and maybe other schools might be able to benefit from if we were successful.
Another reason for choosing a project that was software based was that the skills
learned would be applicable to any other subject. So, if we learnt how to make a
science CD, then we would be better able to create a CD in other subject areas at a
later date.
Context:
As a science teacher in Our Lady's College with an interest in ICT and having just
been appointed to a post of computer maintenance and promotion it became obvious
early on that I would be very closely involved with SIP. The vice-principal, Donal
Lynch, was responsible for getting us involved initially and he worked extremely hard
to get a group together who would work with him on the school's IT plan and possible
project ideas. The group, of about 6 members of staff from very different backgrounds,
put together a comprehensive report outlining past achievements of our school and the
progressive nature of our staff. We had been successful in winning a network of 14
computers from Hewlett Packard under their K-12 programme. This programme is
aimed at schools that have some link with HP — for example a parent of one of our
students sponsored our application — and provides the successful applicants
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with a network of computers and technical support. The successful applicants must
show that the school is worthy of such a prize and also indicate how the award will
help the staff, the students and the community. The school should be a "centre of
learning" in the community. Our success in getting the K-12 award really brought our
IT department forward.
Our Lady's College has had IT, or Computer Studies since approximately 1983 when
we purchased 12 Commodore computers. Several staff members attended a computer
course in Trinity College at the time in order to develop their own skills. These
computers remained in use in the school for many years. In the early 1990s there was
renewed interest in the use of computers in schools and in 1993 we started a
programme of purchasing 386 and 486 machines as money became available. Over a
three year period about 20 machines were bought and they were used to teach both
computer programming and IT skills such as word processing. With the introduction of
Transition Year more people became interested in how we could use computers more
creatively in our teaching. The K-12 computers gave us access to the Internet for many
people and saw a major increase in the demand for access to the computer room.
Methodology:
As a staff we felt that we had to respond to the growing demands for IT skills that
arose in Ireland in the 1990s. In taking part in SIP we decided to work in the area of
software development. We hoped that by producing a CD ROM we would be able to
increase the IT skills of both staff and students. In order to achieve our goal we felt it
was necessary to break up the work into manageable sections — it was much too
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daunting to think about everything at once! It is possibly not quite fair to say that this
was an "action research project" as I had not even heard of this approach until the
project was almost complete, but much of the value of the work we did can be viewed
as "action research". Many of the questions asked by carrying out action research are
directly applicable to our method of work. Some of the questions to be answered
include What was my concern? — Was it possible to increase IT skills among staff and
students by working on our SIP project?
Why was 1 concerned? — I had become increasingly aware of the potential benefits of
ICTs in schools and education, both as skills and as a method of improving the
standard of and interest in education — particularly science education.
What did 1 think 1 could do about my concern? — I thought that I could provide a
challenge and work with students and colleagues to achieve our aim.
What did 1 decide to do? — I needed to get a coordinating group to help run the whole
project and help keep all groups making progress.
The school principal, Mr. Byrne, allocated one class period per week for the
coordinating group to meet. The group consisted of
Donal Lynch — vice principal, Irish, History and IT
teacher. Paul Brennan — English and Music teacher
Josephine Madden — English and Geography teacher and home-school liaison
officer. Cecil Conway — Religion and English teacher
John Loughran — Maths and Science teacher
Geraldine Mulvihill — Maths and Science teacher, IT coordinator, SIP coordinator
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This group met every week for a whole school year — 3 terms. Most of the first term
was spent clarifying exactly what we were trying to do and how we were going to do
it. We needed to answer for ourselves questions like "Is the CD aimed at teachers or
students? Should it be a teaching tool or a resource for independent learning? Is it a
substitute for the textbook or a complement to it? Will it be used before the topic is
covered in class or for reinforcement and revision after a topic has been studied?" All
of this was vital because the material and the way it is presented would have to be
tailored to a particular market. We looked at the science software already available and
discovered that it was all aimed at the UK market with very little, if any, change made
for the Irish market. We felt that there was room for software specifically aimed at the
Irish Junior Cert. curriculum. We decided to get the opinions of a broad range of
students to see what they liked and disliked about science in first year and after. We
drafted a questionnaire that we distributed to a whole range of classes and examined
the information we received. Questionnaires can be very unsatisfactory and often leave
room for follow up investigation so we decided to interview a selection of students —
second, third, fifth and sixth years — and tried to tease out their opinions. From them
we learnt that much of what appealed in science to one student often turned another
student away. To illustrate this point, one student gave up science in
2°d
year because
she thought she might have to dissect the heart whereas another said that the same
prospect attracted her to the subject. Generally, the opportunity for experiments and
"doing things" and seeing "unusual" things was an appeal. We then brought the science
teachers into the picture, as they would be central to the whole project. We asked them
to suggest topics that they felt would be suitable for inclusion in the 1s` year science
course. Many of the same topics were common to both lists so
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we compiled a list of headings from which to select our items for the CD ROM. This
list is:
1. Magnetism
2. Light
3. Astronomy
4. Acids and Bases
5. Ecology
6. Separation Techniques
7. The Heart
8. Atoms
9. Food
10. Energy
We then set about investigating how we could present this material and start designing
it. We established an Advisory Group of interested friends of the school who had some
useful skills we could potentially harness. The members of the advisory group were:
Mr. Mick McCarthy — licensing manager for Microsoft, parent of a student
Mr. Tony Rooney — computer programmer and parent of a student, husband of
teacher Dr. John Mulvihill — research chemist, husband of coordinator
Mr. James Birch — engineer and IT Manager of "The Office Centre"
We all met on two occasions and spent two long evenings trying to hammer out how
we could approach the project — how to design a CD ROM, how to attract and
stimulate interest, possible IT skills we would need etc. This group was very dynamic
and there was a real "buzz" and an excitement, exploring the possibilities that we
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could work on. The enthusiasm generated was amazing and we left these meetings
feeling euphoric. The practicalities of implementing all these ideas were not as simple.
To help us see how this could be done on a practical level Mr. Finian Connolly was
invited in to explain the process his company went through to produce an educational
CD Rom. Mr. Connolly, had left formal education to start his own company to
produce educational CD ROMs for non-English speaking airline crew in the so they
learnt "aviation English" along with rules and regulations at the same time. His
presentation and demonstration of the CD he produced helped enormously to focus
our attention in on what actually could be achieved.
The next step was to get together with the science teachers, of which we have 5, and
ask each teacher to take charge of one topic from our shortlist. Each teacher was then
paired up with a member of the core group who would help with the section in
whatever way possible, would be able to report progress at core group meetings and to
seek help ass required at these weekly meetings. We thought that this would keep
things moving and reduce the risk of anyone falling too far behind. Students were then
briefed about the project and volunteers were sought. Students were asked to select
which field they wanted to work on and "teams" were set up for each topic. We then
just needed to learn how to physically put together a CD ROM. NCTE were promoting
multimedia authoring courses which offered training in the use of Hyperstudio. This
was the only training readily available so we sent two teachers to become trained as
tutors in the use of this software. These teachers then were able to train other teachers
and some students in how to use Hyperstudio. The students then passed on the skills to
each other. Having learnt how Hyperstudio worked we then had a fairly good idea of
what we could do and how to go about it. Each team put
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together a plan of action on paper outlining the layout of their sections — the
storyboards — and then, together with the students, the sections began to take shape.
Different teachers worked in different ways but we felt that it would be a good idea if
there was some sort of standard layout maintained throughout. A design team, led by
Mr. John Loughran and Ms. Briege Wills, an art teacher, drew up a template that all
teams could use. The design covered things like Font, Buttons, card size, etc. To
appreciate how comprehensively this template was planned the only fonts considered
were those that were both PC and Mac compatible. The template was loaded onto the
network and work continued by each team on a daily basis. Teachers and students did
most of the actual work of putting material onto the computers during lunchtime and at
weekends. Even with most of the planning completed it was a very time consuming
process. Many problems arose that had to be addressed on an ongoing basis. Backups
were saved and "lost" on numerous occasions, but the atmosphere among all those
involved was that of fun, excitement and determination not to let the computer beat us.
Some students were assigned research on the Internet to find appropriate pictures,
details and references. Some students even took complete control of their section of a
topic and had weeks of fun putting in material they particularly liked — for example
the Star Trek section in Astronomy! Two students, not particularly keen on computers
but very good with audio-visual equipment, were given the task of setting up and
recording experiments in the school. A challenge was posed to any interested, nonexam student to design a cover and to come up with a title for our CD ROM. The
winning students were presented with their prizes on school prize-giving day. This
helped to keep the profile of our SIP alive within the school community. By the end of
the school year things were shaping up quite nicely and much progress had been made,
however we were running into difficulties with finishing up.
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At the start of the 2000 — 2001 school year it became apparent that the core group
was no longer going to have a specific SIP time allocation. Also, one of our core
group, Mr. John Loughran, was not going to be in the school this year. This posed
some problems with completing the project, as John was responsible for one of the
topics on the CD. Fortunately one of the students involved in that section, a very
capable and computer literate sixth year, Fiona Kelly, was more than willing to take on
the responsibility of finishing that section. This is surely an illustration of how well so
many young people are able to rise to challenges when given the opportunity and
Fiona contributed enormously to the overall project. In fact, on several occasions she
helped my team, and many other teams, with various problems we were having. I was
still on slightly reduced hours this year, 2.6 hours less than usual, which was very
helpful. The problems we ran into at this point involved getting quite a lot of outside
help. We needed training and help in learning how to use the video editing software
we had purchased. We bought what we were told was the best video editing package
available, but it takes a bit of skill to install it and to get it running properly.
Fortunately, we found a new company, Wren Innovations that was willing to help out.
We discovered that we couldn't run Hyperstudio and Pinnacle, the video editing
package, on the same computer. This meant that our "SIP computer" became dedicated
to video editing. The network on which our project was produced was out of action at
various different times during the year so making progress was often very difficult.
When we eventually did learn about video editing we discovered that Hyperstudio
would only take in video in a very bulky format so we were limited to only two
minutes of video in the project if we wanted to fit it on one CD. This was really
dreadful news and it resulted in a change for most groups to using photographs instead
of videos. The other problem we faced was how to get the CD to "auto run"
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and install on first use. For this, again, we sought expert help. We asked Wren
Innovations to write an "auto run" package for us.
Today we now have our CD ready for production. The finishing touches are going in
and we hope to have a CD ROM that the science teachers in our school, and maybe
other schools will be able to use in the coming school year.
There are many things that I would do differently if I had to do this project again.
There are things I know now that would change some of the decisions I made. The
basic method we used of splitting the work into groups and working on different topics
worked well, but the software we used was not a very good choice. It was quite limited
and was incompatible with some of the other software we bought. In retrospect
Illuminatis seems a more suitable multimedia-authoring package as it contains a CD
creator function and auto run package. Hyperstudio kept "freezing" on us and quite a
bit of work had to redone or eliminated because of this. I still have to figure out why
some buttons work when the software is on the hard drive but don't work when put
onto the CD. We also found that we needed several computers to carry out this project
and using a network of computers was the ideal way to do this. However, because
none of us know how to maintain and manage a network we found that on many
occasions the computers weren't working properly.
Significance:
While carrying out this project we, as a group, learned a huge amount about computers
and ourselves. I, personally, have never run a project like this before and I cannot even
begin to say how much I appreciate the help and support I received from my
colleagues. As a group we worked together very well. Far too often we, as
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teachers, work in isolation in our classrooms and don't get the opportunity to work
with other teachers. I want to thank all those who gave so freely of their very precious
free time. This project took up lunch times, weekends and evenings and I never
experienced any resistance from those involved. The students were equally generous
with their time and energy. They have spent hours working on the project, in fact I had
to stop some students from getting carried away and remind them to go to class. I also
have increased my own IT skills — before this I had never heard of Hyperstudio and
was only barely aware of what multimedia authoring was about. My skills have
improved and alongside that my computer teaching skills have also grown. A
colleague, who had never studied science, who completed a computer course run in the
school told me she could really see how interesting science could be. This was a
wonderful complement and I found myself working even harder to try to stimulate this
same kind of interest in the CD. We also learned from the skills of each other. As a
science teacher I used language that was quite specialised without even being aware of
it. In working with others teachers who don't have a science background I was made
aware of this and how difficult it was for weaker students to cope with. I also learnt
how to ask for help from other teachers and from students. In many ways the students
have a lot of computer skills that need to be harnessed.
The impact of this project can sometimes be hard to see. Where does SIP stop and
everything else start? SIP has had a huge effect in bringing IT and science to the
forefront of our consciousness in the school. Many students completed various
computer courses — Hyperstudio, Web — Page design, Internet — and have
continued to develop their skills from there. The computer room is seriously over
booked with a waiting list for access every lunchtime. IT skills among many staff
members have also increased with more and more teachers bringing classes to the
computer room during
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class time. Has this all been as a result of SIP? Honestly, I don't know, but it has
contributed greatly.
Finally, is this method of developing IT skills applicable in a wider context? I think the
answer to this is "Yes", however it has to be qualified. The scale of this project was
enormous, bigger than we ever anticipated and it is not something that a teacher, or
school could take on flippantly without a lot of time dedicated towards it. The project
however could be scaled down to a more manageable size. It could be used to develop
small sections of course material in many various subject areas. Perhaps it could be a
project that a group of students could compile after a bit of research on a topic. For
example, a class could be split into several groups, assigned different topics to research
and then to present their findings as a presentation. Each group would then teach the
other groups, or even better each group would work through the material of the other
groups and learn about each topic for themselves. This poses problems in terms of the
time element involved, especially in exam-based subjects, but opportunities exist in
Transition Year, Leaving Certificate Applied and Vocational Leaving Certificate. I
certainly believe that there needs to be a challenge or a "need" generated in order for
skills to develop. Many of us learnt our computer skills on a "need to know" basis and
the major impact of SIP was to provide us with the opportunity to create a "need". It
then helped in providing the resources and backup to allow us to rise to meet the
challenge.
Acknowledgements:
I would like to take this opportunity to thank NCTE — particularly Seamus Knox,
Adrienne Webb and Breda Meleady — for the opportunity to take part in this project
and for the funding to allow us to carry it out and the support, encouragement and
patience all along the way. I want to thank my school principal, Mr. P. Byrne and the
Board of Management for the confidence and support in us all. Thank you for not
losing faith when it took much longer than we thought and cost more than we
expected. Thank you to all the members of the Advisory Group and the Core Group
who made all this possible. Finally thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to all the
teachers and students who worked, through good days and bad and didn't give in, and
made this a wonderfully exciting challenge. You have made this happen and you have
made it an enjoyable experience — most of the time.
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Summary:
1. The IT skills of both staff and students have increased dramatically in the past
two years — a lot of training has occurred and many more teachers are using
the computers as part of their preparation and their teaching.
2. Students and teachers worked together, as equal members in teams to complete
the project — this has helped to build relationships between different age
groups and also between teachers and students..
3. One student, Fiona Kelly, took responsibility for the completion of a particular
topic with very good results and many other students took responsibility for
their own smaller sections.
4. On many occasions it was the students who were applying pressure to the
teachers to complete work or give direction as they were waiting for them.
5. Internet use has increased in the school and many students learned their skills
while researching topics for SIP.
6. SIP took up a huge amount of time — both of teachers and students.
7. The value of careful planning cannot be over-emphasised.
8. The target audience of the software needs to be specified as this dictates the
structure, language and design of the CD.
9. SIP has been an experience that has benefited our school. Obviously some
students have learned more than others, but the impact of SIP will continue to
be felt in the future.
10. Next September we will be using our own CD ROM with the new lst year
students. Maybe then we will be able to see if we have managed to stimulate a
greater interest in science.
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