Spotlight on the 1997
SIGTel
Online Award Winners
Building Bridges
Angela
Williams
Phyllis Rittman, Don
Hyatt
Thomas Jefferson
High School
for Science and Technology
6560 Braddock Rd.
Alexandria, VA 22312 USA
Project
Description/Author
Reflections
Building Bridges was a two–part set of lesson plans designed to
culminate
in a series of HTML documents used for a variety of reasons. First,
individual
classes were asked to investigate the technology used by their
partners. Next,
the business leaders came to the classrooms to brief the students on
how their
local businesses operate. Students in three freshmen classes developed
HTML
and Java scripting skills. Finally, these three classes developed Web
sites
focusing on their business partner’s technology. The Web sites
were targeted
for 6– to 12–year–olds. The final products were
posted on
the school Web server.
These Web sites were featured on a field trip to a local elementary
school outreach
program. Our students interacted with elementary school students in
their library,
reinforcing Internet skills while educating them on the technology used
by local
area businesses. The sites also were featured at our school booth at the
Fairfax
County Fair. Because we had a strong base of young students with HTML
skills,
we then partnered with the upper–level computer science classes to
host
“Get–on–the–Web–Day.” We opened the
school
campus to small businesses and nonprofit organizations and developed Web
sites
for them during two–hour appointment times. We were able to
develop complete
Web sites for more than 50 companies and nonprofit organizations. The
Web sites
ranged from simple opening pages with a couple of links and e–mail
to one
site with online registration for reading services for the visually
impaired.
Both segments of this project were developed in partnership with the
Fairfax County
Fair organization.
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