Prince William County, Virginia, has a very forward thinking list of required technology objectives for students. These objectives are spelled out for every grade level from Grade K through Grade 12, and can be seen in total at this web site: Instructional Technology Competencies

Specifically at the 5th grade level, many of the objectives are being addressed for our students through their participation in this project. Below is a list of these objectives, organized by strand and seen in red text on the left, with a discussion of how they were applied during this project. The discussion is in black text on the right.

Information Processing 1. Select appropriate search strategies to access and retrieve information from various electronic resources. 2. Organize and store information gathered from various electronic resources.

Students used research skills at school and at home which required them to access various electronic resourses as well as hardcopy resources.

Computer Operations 4. Operate peripheral devices (e.g. printer, digital camera, external CD-ROM drive).

Students used several peripheral devices during this project. They went to town with our Apple Quicktake Digital Camera, and also enjoyed using the QuickConnex Video Camera. The digital camera was used in the classrooms, but the video camera was used exclusively in our computer lab. While we have had our digital camera for several years, our video camera is new this year, and is a gift from the Franklin Institute.

Computer Literacy 3. Explain and follow copyright laws as they apply to electronic media.

When the students first learned about the project, they wanted to use all kinds of pictures that they found from books, web sites, and our huge CD encyclopedia collection. They learned that this web site is a form of republication, and as such, comes under the copyright laws ..... As a result, we are proud to say that all computer graphics have come from original student art, right down to our "back" button, and all our backgrounds.

Software Applications 1. Use grade appropriate curriculum related software. 4. Create a 1 to 2 page document using word processing, multimedia or publishing software.

As previously mentioned, our school library has a healthy collection of research CD-ROMs which the students checked out and explored at length. They also explored the wonderful World Wide Web for the geological web sites that abound. As relates to the published documents, our deadline for this project was very soon after the start of school, and formal word processing training had not yet been given to the fifth graders. In spite of that, many students chose to use the classroom or home computers to type up their findings.

Telecommunications 1. Use, with supervision, local and worldwide network communication systems. 2. Describe search engines and directories. 3. Explore and describe the basic components of telecommunications (modem, Ethernet, cabling/connection, server, workstation, software). 4. Participate in a class telecommunications project. 5. Use appropriate network etiquette.

In Prince William County, all 4th and 5th graders are required to participate in an Internet project of some sort. Our "Journey to the Center of the Earth" project served to meed that requirement, as well as to expose the students to all the information required by the Telecommunications Objectives. The classroom teachers lead the students in web research, and the email generated by this project will be eagerly managed by the students, I'm sure. Thanks to the Franklin Institute, the students will also have the unique opportunity to "host" a discussion forum on the question of how countries should share the ocean's minerals. Network etiquette will play a big roll in the student participation in this activity.