Little Chico Creek Elementary School Effervescent Rockets Monte Hill Little Chico Creek Elementary School Chico, California

Little Chico Creek Elementary School Effervescent Rockets My name is Monte Hill and I am a 3rd grade teacher at Little Chico Creek Elementary School in Chico, CA. My web site is My is This is a third grade science lesson on rocketry. The students will explore the physics of rocketry by launching simple effervescent rockets. Introduction

Little Chico Creek Elementary School Effervescent Rockets Overview This is a third grade science lesson on rocketry. During this five-day lesson, the students will explore the physics of rocketry by launching simple effervescent rockets made from 35mm film containers and Alka Seltzer tablets. This lesson addresses Physical Science standard 1 (e,b,g).

Little Chico Creek Elementary School Effervescent Rockets Instructional Objectives States of matter Stored energy and conversion of energy to motion Real-life applications of stored energy In general, students will encounter these topics:

Little Chico Creek Elementary School Effervescent Rockets My Expectations Improve websight building skills Create a lesson for my class Work with colleagues Learn PowerPoint Make money

Little Chico Creek Elementary School Effervescent Rockets Outcomes I learned the following: FTP with Leech Web page creation in Netscape Composer Power point Downloading and uploading techniques

Little Chico Creek Elementary School Effervescent Rockets Personal Successes Gained ability to use website technology in class Forced (happily) to take a closer look at standards A chance to further research the topic of rocketry Personal satisfaction Opportunity to share with colleagues

Little Chico Creek Elementary School Effervescent Rockets Student Successes Learned according to standards Came to view Internet as legitimate research tool Inspired to extend their learning independently. Highly motivated

Little Chico Creek Elementary School Effervescent Rockets Shortcomings Students resist reading on-screen directions Presentation technology can overwhelm lesson Lack of student knowledge of website navigation Website creation occasionally hindered by technical glitches involving server and school computers

Little Chico Creek Elementary School Effervescent Rockets Student Data Prior to the lesson, no students could answer more than two questions correctly, 30% answered one, and 70% answered none correctly. On the post-test, 80% answered all three correctly, 10% two, and 10% only one.

Little Chico Creek Elementary School Effervescent Rockets Revisions My lesson was perfect. No revisions were necessary…..

Little Chico Creek Elementary School Effervescent Rockets Summary While I possessed some web building skills prior to this project, I found there was still a great deal to learn. It was a challenge to bring lesson planning skills and technology skills together without emphasizing one over the other. I enjoyed using the Internet for presentation rather than just for research, but it is clear that this sort of teaching is still in its infancy.

Little Chico Creek Elementary School Effervescent Rockets Warning If websight technology is to be used and accepted extensively as a teaching tool, the frustration level must be reduced. It is my hope that the process of creating a websight can become technically smooth and easy. Otherwise, we might easily waste a golden opportunity to fully utilize the tools we have invented. As long as the process is still frustrating, scary and intimidating to newcomers, it will continue to be used only by a select few.