A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Centennial High School, Champaign, Illinois

It began with four science teachers and an idea: that computer networks could be a powerful tool for teaching and learning. They didn't know how to finance additional equipment; nor did they see exactly how they would use networks in their classrooms. They knew they would need help, so they approached the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA).

Expert Help and Advice from a Neighbor

NCSA is a federally funded research laboratory located in the Champaign-Urbana area. Although its primary function is to provide scientists with access to what can only be termed the super-fast computing power of their equipment (a Cray Supercomputer), the lab's official mission includes educational and outreach activities. It assists schools anywhere in writing grants to the National Science Foundation for funding of computer programs or for the acquisition of equipment. NCSA also organizes summer workshops for teachers and maintains an E-mail address for questions from educators regarding implementation of education programs involving computers, teacher training, and grant applications.

At NCSA, the science teachers from four high schools in the Champaign-Urbana area received assistance in writing a successful grant proposal to the National Science Foundation for a joint telecomputing project with NCSA. NCSA assigned the teachers a liaison, Nora Sabelli, who worked with them on the implementation of the project.

The installation of computer equipment and network connections attracted the attention of Ameritech, the Great Lakes' regional Bell Telephone Company. The telephone company wanted to test some network equipment they hoped eventually to market. For that opportunity, Ameritech, through a grant to the University of Illinois, outfitted one of the public schools with high-density digital phone lines. Ameritech is now helping to build a community-wide network.

Science Experiments on the Computer Screen

The first telecomputing application at Centennial High School in Champaign connected the students of the Advanced Chemistry class with the supercomputer at NCSA. This was welcome news for Centennial, as some natural physical reactions, such as those inside molecules, can be modelled mathematically only with a complex and lengthy series of calculations. The supercomputer allowed students to design and conduct their own experiments and watch parts of molecules move on their computer screens, in response to their own computer commands. In one type of simulation, students watch the orbitals of models their shape, number, or speed in reaction to imposed actions. Another type of simulation demonstrates the ionization of atoms how the size of atoms changes when ions are added or subtracted.

Such simulations of molecular behavior provides interactive learning rather than one- way presentation. Each student decides which atoms to use and what type of action to initiate. Since scientists developed the molecular simulation programs for their own research needs, whenever a Centennial High School student uses the program, he or she is imitating the behavior of scientists at work.

More recently, the NCSA has also written simulation programs in physics and mathematics.

Other Telecomputing Applications and Increased Use

The second telecomputing application at Centennial High School incorporates multimedia software (such as HyperCard and Mosaic), Gopher search software (Gopher finds files within libraries of files), and data bases from all over the world, containing text, pictures, and even music. A student conducting a research project on a Shakespearean play, for example, reads text from Henry V, views artists' renderings of the English king drawn in the king's time, and listens to music composed in Henry's era.

In the first year, 30 Advanced Chemistry students used computer network applications. Now, over 100 students in chemistry and other courses have access to the computer lab and use the networks for some school projects. Soon, students in all of the regular chemistry courses will use the supercomputer simulation programs over the network. Centennial High School also plans to connect to the network all of the Macintosh computers they use for their English courses, which start in the students' freshman year. (All students take the English courses.)

Still more students use the network before and after school to pursue their own interests and projects. The computer lab is open a few hours after regular class hours, and students can be found there until closing time.

As one grant tends to attract others, one successful telecomputing application attracts imitators. Telecomputing in the Champaign Public Schools now interests even the previously skeptical. It was natural that science teachers initiated the first telecomputing application. They had considerable experience with computers and understood their own capabilities as learning tools. Once they successfully implemented their telecomputing program, they were free to help other teachers do the same.

Glitches

Some teachers like telecomputing, particularly those who readily see its usefulness. Other teachers and some administrators believe money for telecomputing might better be spent on other programs. For the financial administrators especially, some of the added expense of telecomputing that which is not covered by outside grants is subtracted from their budget's bottom line, which makes them uncomfortable.

The Future

According to former science teacher Barry Rowe, the parents who voice an opinion on the telecomputing innovations are universally enthusiastic about telecomputing. Some, in fact, worry that if their children do not learn telecomputing, they will be disadvantaged throughout their lives. In fact, it is often parents who provide the primary motivation for the adoption of telecomputing in a school. Schools get wired for network connections through parents' financial contributions or through parents' insistence that the school be wired. The Champaign Public School District is now in the process of integrating all its schools into a network.

The Champaign Public School District is now in the process of conducting a formal evaluation of their telecomputing programs, complete with objective outcome measures. Informally, though, the program has generated great enthusiasm among students and much interest among teachers and parents.

Barry Rowe,
Director of Educational Technology
Champaign Public Schools
(217) 351-3756
browe@ncsa.uiuc.edu

Lisa Bievenue
Centennial High School
(217) 351-3951

Scott Lathrop
NCSA
(217) 244-0072

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Title Page Christopher Columbus Middle School

EDhome kstubbs and gsolomon, 12/9/94