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Claudine Brown: The Shout program grows out of the Smithsonian’s
need to broaden access to audiences that we might not have served before. And so we see
this as an opportunity to share our scientific content, and specifically that content that
deals with global warming, with educators across the globe. And they in turn develop
lesson plans and activities, which they share with their peers.
James Bernard: Microsoft Partners in Learning along with
Smithsonian and Taking IT Global conceived Shout a couple years ago and really with the
idea that we could use technology as a great way to link teachers and schools together
around key environmental issues that are affecting our time.
Josh Falk: Last year we looked at land issues, this year
we’re looking at water issues and the third year we’ll look at air issues. And we’ve
offered a series of online conferences where students all over the world get to interact
with Smithsonian scientists and learn about some of the top research that they’re doing.
We’ve also run a citizen science program where students get to collaborate and upload
and add data and then get to interact with each other through an online website.
Cheryl Arnett: We’re in a very rural place. Children have
no access, or very little access to museums, to experts. Being able to go online opens
the whole world up to them for feedback. It takes our very, very small isolated world
and suddenly makes it global.
James Bernard: It’s something we look for as an employer,
kids who can really be able to relate to other types of cultures, other types of geographical
areas. And so what this does is allow kids to start being able to interact with other
kids around some mutually shared issues.
Josh Falk: The Shout conferences last about an hour.
And they’re interactive in the fact that students can ask our Smithsonian expert questions
and the Smithsonian experts can answer with video or with photographs or just direct one
on one questioning. And then they’re archived so students if they have the same question
can look back and find out more information.
Claudine Brown: We believe that when young people understand
how the work that they do relates to the larger world, it becomes more meaningful for them.
One of those activities that’s been incredibly popular is the tree banding activity.
Chris Clay: The tree banding involves putting a band dendrometer,
which is like a stainless steel band, around the tree. And at one side it’s got a little
gap, so as the tree expands that gap sort of gets bigger so students can measure the
size of the gap and measure the way that the tree is growing.
Cheryl Arnett: We have an arboretum at our school and have
installed the bands on the tree. Kids are going out and measuring them right now. They’ll
be studying the trees for a number of years and taking part in an online database of measurements
from trees around the world and from schoolchildren around the world.
Jess Parker: We like to find ways of getting students and
learners you know much more involved. Hands on experience is worth a whole lot more than
an equal amount of time than classroom time. And judging from the excitement we’ve seen
from the students that we’ve introduced this program to, that’s quite true.
Claudine Brown: Introducing them to opportunities where they
can use inquiry-based methods teaches them habits of mind that they can use in other
contexts. So they can certainly use these habits and these practices while they’re
doing tree banding but it is our hope that they’ll use them when they’re solving
other kinds of problems.
Chris Clay: Anything that’s authentic and genuine can
never be constrained within one sort of subject area. When they’re collecting data they
have to think critically about the quality of that data, whether there were mistakes
made and how can they ensure that the data that they’ve got is accurate. And at the
same time when they think about the wider aspects of the tree banding program in general,
why we’re collecting the data, that impacts on all kinds of other things in terms of social
sciences and geography and when they’re analyzing and collating the data, they’re
using their mathematical skills, their ICT skills.
Cheryl Arnett: Education is changing and it’s no longer
about just finding information, learning it, memorizing it, and it needs to be something
that children discover and apply and make use of. And the Shout series brings to us
project ideas that are not in textbooks. It allowed us to apply the kids’ learning to
things that we wouldn’t have otherwise thought about. It was maybe the idea maker for us.
Chris Clay: With the success of the tree banding program,
it makes the future of the whole project in terms of the Shout project be really exiting.
The fact that the students have been working on land this year and thinking about trees
and the fact that that’s going to transform into water which is probably something that’s
even more obvious in terms of how it impacts our society and our lives, I think it’s
just going to be really exciting. I’m amazed that more educators haven’t gotten on top
of this
Cheryl Arnett: I will definitely be participating in the
Shout projects this year, which are all about water. I have first graders and there is so
much for them to learn about how different water in their environment is compared to
the water for people all around the world and I want them to learn about that, to hear
about that from more than just myself.
Claudine Brown: If you think about some of the projects that
we feel are incredibly successful, I think that they have been projects that have been
empowering. They let teachers and their students know that they have the ability to make change
and solve problems. And so it’s our hope that people go through these processes but
they are changed and transformed and understand that they have the ability to step out of
the classroom in ways that make a difference for their students.