General Information Project Overview Curriculum Connections Resource Connections Evaluation

  General Information

  Project Overview

Students will search the World Wide Web for information about Tainted Blood and its effects on recipients. During class time the students will conduct their research, compile it into a coherent presentation and present it to the class. Each student will be asked to concentrate on the different groups affected, such as hemophiliacs and those who receive blood during surgery. This topic is well suited for Web research because tainted blood and the related health problems are so new. The Web is one of the only locations that such information can be found.

Class time from both Biology 2201, STS 2206 as well as Language 1101 and 2101 will be used for this project. The intention is to incorporate several curriculum areas into one student project, Biology, Language, Computer Technology, Bio-technology and Information Technology. A three week time frame will be devoted to Web research. This short time is intentional. It will allow intense devotion to the project and prevent distraction by other projects. Twelve or fifteen classes over three weeks provides the same amount of on-line time as a Ten week project with one or two classes per week.

  Curriculum Connections

This project directly address three curriculum areas:

• Science and Technology
• Language
• Computer Technology
• Biology

School Curriculum Plans:

This project fits in quite well with the goals set fourth by the school improvement process at Our Lady of the Cape School. One of our goals this year is to increase the integration of computers into the curriculum. This project obviously contributes to the attainment of that goal. One of our own goals is to improve Language skills by emphasizing it throughout the cirriculum. During this project students will be exercising their Language skills as they prepare their presentations for class.

Provincial Curriculum Objectives

One of the topics covered in Biology is that of Blood and Diseases. This project will broaden their resource base and provide current information. One of the objectives of the Language 1101 course is to instill in students the importance of the presentation of their work. This project provides an excellent opportunity to fulfil that objective, as well as the objective of public speaking and improving oral skills. Language 2101 is a Research Paper course. Students are required to choose topics and write research papers. This project provides an excellent opportunity to fulfill that objective by providing an additional up-to-date source of information.

Technology Education Objectives

One of the ILO's for Technology at the High School Level is to:

• Use the computer based technologies to research technology issues and problems, collaborate with others on solving technology problems and communicate the outcomes to others.

One of the ILO's for Communications at the high School Level is to:

• Demonstrate understanding of how information and communications tools are used to access information, to evaluate and select information appropriate to the need, and to create, modify and disseminate information.

Both of these Intended Learning Outcomes are directly addresses by this project as it is proposed.

  Resource Connections

How will Stellar Schools Internet Connection Help?

The Stellar Schools Internet connection would bring one very valuable and crucial resource to this project. That resource is the World Wide Web. This project would not be possible without the Stellar Schools Internet connection. The information being sought is so current that no other means of communications could be asked to make it available to a class of students.

Other Resources?

The students will obviously be using the computer in their research. However they will also be using them to prepare their presentations. It will not be mandatory but some may chose to do their presentations on Power Point.

There may be other auxiliary technologies used by students at their discretion, (such as Encyclopaedias on CD-Rom). However none will be required and none will be brought in to the school especially for this project.

  Evaluation

Learning Outcomes:

• Students will learn about the current government position on the Tainted Blood situation and the role of government in dealing with individuals affected by receiving Tainted Blood.

• Students will learn how to browse the Web for a specific topic using search engines such as Yahoo and Lycos.

Impact:

For most students this will be their first experience with the Web. This will account for the greatest initial impact. Undoubtedly students will be motivated by the technology as well as references to hemophiliacs here on the Port au Port Peninsula. However the most important and lasting impact will be their access to unlimited information resources. Right now if the topic is not adequately covered in our limited library, then students do not get the opportunity to explore it. This access will open them up to a wealthy world of information equal to students living in large towns and cities.

Undeniably the biggest impact will be that of equality of academic opportunity.