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Tangipahoa Parish School System Teachers have discovered
a new tool to improve teaching and learning and motivate
students to master geography and mapping skills
correlated to the Comprehensive Curriculum. Global
Positioning System units (GPS) have been purchased by
Pat Williams, Coordinator for Staff Development, who is
in charge of the REAP grant for the district. Teachers
attending
TangiTech Social Studies
staff development
received training in using the GPS units and instead of
a stipend for Saturday attendance and completion of a
Blackboard online course, they received a GPS unit for
their classroom. The REAP grant funded two sets of 15
units that are available for check-out for teachers who have been
trained in this new technology.
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Lynn Powell is a teacher
at Loranger Middle School who recently completed
TangiTech Social Studies. She and her two boys have been
busy with their GPS units geocaching all over the area.
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Michelle Mount's Gifted
students in 2nd - 4th grades completed a Measurement
GeoCaching Unit - "How Do You Measure Up?" that Ms.
Mount developed in TangiTech Social Studies.
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Linda Morel's second
graders at Amite Elementary worked together to complete
Dina Spears' GeoCaching unit "NASCAR Navigating" with
GPS units.
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Jessica
Dupuy's students at O.W. Dillon Elementary in Kentwood
recently used GPS units to go on an Easter Egg Hunt at
school. Children worked in teams to find marked
waypoints where the Easter Eggs were hidden.
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SchoolTech
Facilitator, Melissa Ryan, created an Easter GeoCaching
Unit for the
first
graders in Ms. Lisa Sander's class at Tucker Elementary
in Ponchatoula. The students had to use the GPS units to
locate hidden eggs - each egg had a treat and letters -
then they had to move the letters around to spell an
Easter word.
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Janet Haydel at D.C.
Reeves in Ponchatoula
took her fourth graders
on a Walking Tour of Ponchatoula where they measured
distances with the GPS units and used the compass for
directions. Click on the picture above to share in their
adventure.
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Annette Tullier,
computer lab manager at D.C. Reeves, created a
GeoCaching Activity for students where they used the GPS
units to find different caches on the playground and
learn about Natural Disasters at the same time. Click on
the picture above to take a look.
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Melissa Ryan, SchoolTech facilitator at West Side Middle
School, wrote a mini grant for GPS units and conducted a
Geocaching unit with Michelle Mount's Gifted Students...
Click here for pictures.
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Michelle Mount's Gifted and Talented students along with
SchoolTech facilitator Melissa Ryan,
went GeoCaching in the Hammond area recently. Students
used GPS units to find latitude and longitude of hidden
caches in the area and then placed several caches of
their own for other GeoCachers to find. Their
information was entered online at
www.geocaching.com
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Click
here to see pictures of GPS workshop that Sheryl
Crain from Washington Parish presented for TPSS
Teachers. Materials from that workshop are:
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Click here to see pictures
from
TangiTech Social Studies in April, 2006.
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Dorothy Sledge, Support Teacher
created GeoCache Hunts for Jessica Dupuy's 6th grade
classes at O.W. Dillon. All of the caches were on
Rocks and Minerals. There were sample Louisiana rocks
that students had to use a map to locate where these
rocks are found and mark it on their LA map. Students
had to test rocks, label the layers of the Earth, match
fossils with the objects that made the indentations, and
choose a pet rock to name and decorate later. Students
took turns navigating with the GPS units and taking
digital photos.
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Melinda Blache's
students at Hammond Eastside Upper completed a
GeoCaching Activity on the United States.
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