Group+3

Middle school is a crucial time period in which the student is expected to master new concepts in preparation for entering high school. In doing so, it is vital for the students to interact and become engaged in their learning environment. Due to the necessity of the interaction, it is highly important to receive a grant in order to provide the students with the best learning tools that they will need. Roosevelt middle school, an intermediate school located in the District of Columbia is seeking to obtain a grant in the amount of ten thousand dollars to provide learning tools to the students for an upcoming field trip. Details of the tools for the project will be provided upon further reading of this proposal. The dole purpose of this academic field trip to the historic sites in the District of Colombia is to allow for visual learning and first-hand experience for the students. It will assist them in preparing for their high school education and to allow them to appreciate the history of this great nation. The curriculum in Virginia states that the students are required to learn and master the history of the United States in seventh grade. For this reason, our grant is specifically for tools for the seventh graders to use on their field trip. Many concepts are taught throughout the seventh grade academic year, but a few are key concepts that will be highlighted on their trip. The learning skills that will be the sole focus of the field trip are communication, writing, history and creativity. In order for the students to enhance their communication skills, they will be required to approach and interview various people at different historical landmarks. Such landmarks will include the grounds of the Whitehouse, the Lincoln Memorial, The United States Capitol Building and the United States Department of Treasury. The will be interviewing questions based on the content standards that were taught in class to further develop their knowledge. The student will choose a topic related to the landmark they are visiting, and using their knowledge about it and information they have collected from the participant, will create a final project on the particular topic. As previously stated, detailed information regarding the project will be identified. Another skill that the students will be working on will be their writing skills. After completion of their interviews, the students will be required to write notes based on what they have learned on the tablets that have been provided to them for the field trip. By doing so, it will allow the students to deepen their understanding by putting together their thoughts and information into an essay format. It is vital for their learning that they have this interaction with people because it will help them remember the information, enhance their communication skills and help them put into words how the experience made them feel. A third skill that will be important for the seventh grade field trip is to focus on the historical aspect of the trip. It will allow them to review what they have learned throughout the year and focus on a topic they have found most interesting and relevant to the trip. Such concepts that have been taught in the curriculum are, but are not limited to; distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information, formulate an informed, carefully reasoned position on a community issue, identifying the purposes for the Constitution of the United States as stated in its Preamble, describing the role of the Electoral College in the election of the president and vice president, examining the impact of the media on public opinion and public policy. It is important to gain this first-hand experience in relation to these topics to understand the opinions of others, outside in the real world. By opening the student’s minds the environment, they may understand these issues in a different way. The last skill that will be enhanced is the students’ creativity. They will use their knowledge to create a presentable project in form of a PowerPoint through their tablets, or using special programs such as Wiki or Comic Life. They will be able to choose the program to use to enhance their autonomy and creativity. Minimal research has been conducted in the field of education in regards to students using tablets in the classroom. However, the research that has been produced has shown that tablets are actually beneficial to student’s learning. The first example is a study conducted by Corn and Oliver (2008) which sought to understand if student’s using technology for activities and special programs did better in the classroom throughout the year than those that were not using the same technology. More specifically, they sought to determine if they had greater satisfaction with technology at the school, more exposure to technology-supported classroom activities, more technology use in different subject areas, and greater technology skill. At the end of the year the students answered a questionnaire regarding the technology. The results showed that after one year with tablets, several differences in students’ technology use and skill were documented, including: higher satisfaction with school technology, greater frequency of technology use in specific subjects such as math and science, greater frequency of certain classroom activities such as two-way communicating, and greater technology skills on competencies such as editing collaborative wikis. Progress of student collaboration was evident after implementing the tablet program, including sharing notes and co-editing wikis. Another study conducted by Rismark and Solvberg (2012) the use of wireless technology in the classroom proved very effect as the students were thrilled to be able to use it. They found that it increased learning due to the fact that students found it very easily mobile. Their responses of the technology stated that they enjoyed using the mobile technologies, such as the tablets because it provided new studying opportunities. Although this research was conducted at the university level, it is very applicable to students at the high school and middle school levels. One positive aspect of the technology was the flexibility of being able to study at any time and any place. It is difficult to interpret the long-term effect of the tablet devices, due to the modernization of them. It is important to note though, that the impact of the tablets have been positive compared to negative. It will be very interesting to see the benefits of the tablets in many different schools around the country. But, for now, we will begin our tablet journey at Roosevelt High School in Virginia. This project will last for a total of one school week. The ten 7th grade students, the one 7th grade teacher, and one parent volunteer will be visiting Washington, D.C. for two days at the beginning of the week and conducting interviews with different people in the district and visiting the famous memorials/monuments. Students will have the freedom to interview people from a handful of places in the district. Students will have predetermined questions that they will ask that follow different Virginia content standards for the 7th grade Social Studies requirements. These questions will already be approved by the teacher before the trip in order to ensure that the interviews are successful and that the students are learning different aspects of history in person. Wednesday and Thursday the students will work together outside of the classroom to produce their videos, finish their journals, and create another visual project. Students will have access to the school computers and also have access to their own computers to facilitate the technological component of the project. On Friday, the students will present their videos and creative projects to the rest of the class in the afternoon. Through these interviews, students will use the four major educational skillsreading, writing, listening, and speaking. Students will film multiple interviews and then create a visual project displaying their results to the rest of the class the following week.  While visiting in the district, students will also be writing at least four journals about their experiences during the trip. Students will use tablets to record the interviews, take pictures, type their journals, and have extra applications to make their projects easier. As for reading, the students will collect their favorite brochures from the different historical places. These brochures must include detailed information and a creative design that present United States history in a different way than just reading from the school textbook. Students will have the tablets for the week and then they will be returned back to the classroom for other students to use during the rest of the school year. The teacher and the parent volunteer will not have tablets, due to the cost, but are more than welcomed to have their own cameras and other digital devices to record their experiences as well. From the grant money, we will need twelve Metro tickets for two days for the entire group. We will also need ten tablets and necessary cables for the students to use for the week. In order to fund the creative project, we will provide the students with gift cards so the students can buy various applications to make the project flow easier. We will of course need there to be willing employees to be a part of the student interviews. We hope that this will be an enjoyable experience for both the Roosevelt Intermediate School students and the different employees within the district. This project will revolve primarily around the supervision of 4 adult student teachers who will guide the students in the use of the purchased tablets in order to enrich their learning experience interviewing the people of Washington D.C. Ruth Byer will be the leader of this project, as she will provide her expertise as a history degree major to make sure students are recording information accurately. She will also be the brains of this operation so any problems the students or assistant staff might face will consult her for her opinion on the matter. Ruth has proven to be a competent leader and will surely fulfill her role as team leader to best of her extent. One of the lead student teacher assistants will be Lindsay Rejniak who will direct the students to potential hotspots for them to dig out information from busy local vendors. Lindsay will also research places like museums and natural landmarks that will perhaps provide some insight into the history of our nation’s capital. She will also map the public transportation route that the students will take in order to reach their required destinations with time to gather information. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Michael To will be the class maintenance advisor to make sure all of the students’ apps and tablets are fully functional and ready to be used. He will also act as the progression tracker to make sure students do not fall behind or move on ahead too soon as they advance their project. He will be on standby at each location at certain time intervals, but if a student at another location needs him his cell phone will be ready to take incoming calls from students who need help. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Maribel will be the class advisor meaning she will communicate with the head consultants of the vendors and museums the class will be visiting in order to set-up a special deals and accommodations for our students. Maribel will also be a stop gate and fill in the missing roles that might or might not be needed during the trip.
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 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Leadership skills, roles and responsibilities **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> ** b) Staff skills, roles and responsibilities ** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The teachers will serve as guardians and guides during this project where a large group of children will be exploring the world outside the classroom for two whole days. The teachers will also watch as students try to interact with the environment and see them progress with not only their social and comprehension skills but also their ability to use their newfound technology in a positive way. Then they will return to the class and help the students further their understanding of their country’s history while also learning how to use the latest technology made available to them through this grant. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The teachers will need a specific skill set to fulfill their roles in this project. Ruth is our history expert as she has her degree in social science from the University of California Irvine and has the leadership skills to take this project and take off with it. Her ability to control potential conflicts makes her the perfect choice to lead this project. Lindsay’s expertise in the use of directional technology along with her savvy planning skills allows her to plan out the route the students will take in order to complete their assignment under the time allotted while also getting the most out of the experience. Our tech expert Michael will use his ever expanding knowledge of technology to keep our student’s tablets in working condition while helping educate students on how to work every aspect of their personal device from the camera to the apps itself. He will also keep track of the time that each destination is given and make sure the project runs smoothly. Maribel will act as our voice to the multiple outlets that we will use for this trip. She will find us the best deals out there in order to save us money by inquiring on potential deals that can be pre-arranged for large groups such as ours. She will also fill in multiple roles that might be needed during the trip such as a emergency nurse with the skills to apply first aid when needed.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> ** c) Professional Development ** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The training required for this training will include information on where the project will take place, which Lindsay will take care of and lecture her other colleagues on in order to ensure a safe and sound trip. Maribel will receive instruction on how to apply first aid to students who get injured while working on this project. Michael will do research into the tablets’ primary and secondary functions so he can fix any problems that might arise from this new technology. He will also research the apps we will be using so that he can fix any problems that might correlate with that. Ruth will not need any training and will work using her intuition and knowledge she has acquired through years of training. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The training will be supplemented by either the teacher themselves or given by outside resources. For Lindsay she will use multiple online sources to procure her information on the many outlets and locations in D.C. As for Maribel she will get training in first aid use from our school nurse who will show her basic and intermediate ways of taking care of an injured or sick student. Michael will mostly do research on his own by reading the instructional guides that are available online from the company that makes the tablets. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Aside from the nurse instructing Maribel on first aid, most of the learning resources will be learned online. The internet will be the main educator to our staff as they take the most efficient techniques to make sure this project is a success. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Throughout the course of this project students will be given several assessments that will cover different areas. The first assessment/evaluation that will be administered to the students will cover areas of motivation and interest in the subject covered through this project. The participants of this project will be the most at-risk seventh grade students. Students will be administered a survey generated through SurveyMonkey, which will contain questions designed to measure students' motivation and interest in school. Students will be administered a pre-project assessment to establish a baseline of students' motivation and interest in school and in the project. The post-project assessment will measure whether students' motivation and interest levels has increased, which is one of the aims of this project. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">In addition to measuring and evaluating the students' levels of motivation and interest regarding school, this project will also involve an evaluation and comparison of students' grades. The students who will be taking part of this project will be at-risk, which means that evaluating their post-project grades and make a determination of the influence of this project on the students' grades and performance. Since students participating in this project are expected to get more interested and motivated in learning and having a better performance in school, which would be reflected in the students generating better grades than the ones they were obtaining before this project. The grades will be compared to the end of the year grades that the students earn. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Students will be graded on the assignments they are expected to complete in the duration of this project using specifically designed rubrics for each of the assignments. Students will be graded on terms of their writing skills, communication skills, and creativity in the final products that they generate after the project is completed by the students. Students' final written products (the journal compilation of the interviews) will be evaluated on overall writing quality, grammatical errors, and relevancy to the assignment. Students' video presentations and additional presentation will be evaluated/graded on terms of how creatively they present the data (interview, brochures, and video) they gather during their trip. Students' grades will also include a section in their presentation skills, when presenting to their classroom peers their presentations. Students will also be graded on their ability to make connections between the material being learned in the classroom and the assignments they generate out of this project.
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<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> References <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Corn, Kevin M. & Oliver, Jeni O. (2008). Student-reported differences in technology use and skills after the implementation of one-to-one computing. //Educational Media International, 45//(3), 215-229.

code <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Solvberg, A. M., & Rismark, M. (2012). Learning spaces in mobile environments. //Active learning in higher education, 13//(1), 23-33. code