Bright House Networks Star Teacher Awards 2008-2009 Winning Projects

Higher Learning: We’re College Bound!!
Jessica Ayres, Bruchetta Jones, and Everett Jones
Union Park Middle School, Orlando, FL

At Union Park Middle School, many students are first-generation college bound in their families. Seeing a need to inspire students to reach for the stars, Ms. Ayres, and Mr. and Mrs. Jones designed a project that would introduce college as a viable option not only to students in their classes, but to every student at Union Park Middle School. The project’s overall goal was to teach students about the vast number of colleges and universities available and the steps they can to take to successfully enroll. Students watched relevant Cable in the Classroom programming like ESPN’s College Game Day, Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs, MTV’s The College Humor Show, and Ovation TV’s Designer People to gain a deeper understanding of the college experience. Students were then paired up to research a college or university of their choice, and turned their research into presentations that were shared in a school-wide College Fair. At the end of the project, almost 100% of students raised their hands when asked if they had plans to attend college, a major difference than at the beginning of the year. 

Dragon Lore Castles and More 
Kathleen Butler, Ana King, and John Wehust
Stewart Middle Magnet School, Tampa, FL
 
Kathleen Butler, Ana King, and John Wehust partnered together to embark on a study of medieval history, literature, myths, art, and warfare with the goal of incorporating library study skills, research methods, and e-literacy training for 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th graders at Stewart Middle Magnet School. Drawing on cable resources from A&E Networks, Animal Planet, Discovery Education, HISTORY, The Food Network, National Geographic, TLC, The Weather Channel, and The Travel Channel, students gained a comprehensive view of what life was like during this important period and were able to compare and contrast the lives of people then and now. In addition to learning about medieval culture through a multi-disciplinary approach, students underwent cross-age training and built buddy-reading and mentoring relationships with neighboring elementary schools students. They also performed a Reader’s Theater presentation at a local public library branch and held their own concluding ceremony.

The Florida Story Part II - Protecting Ourselves from Our Environment
Karen Horsting, Paul Peterson, and Debra Porter
Southwest Middle School, Lakeland, FL
 
In the Florida Story Part I, students learned about their environment and conservation. Now in The Florida Story Part II, students learned about natural disasters and the impact it has on Florida’s ecosystem. Continuing an important cross-curricular unit focused on Florida’s biodiversity, Karen Horsting, Paul Peterson, and Debra Porter were determined to educate students to preserve and cherish their environment. After watching cable programs like MTV’s Diary of Jay Z: Water for Life and Water: Friend and Foe on Discovery Channel, students were able to study the earth’s atmosphere, understand the magnitude of water as the world’s second most important natural resource for life, and drew contrasts between Florida’s water problems and those in third-world countries. They also purchased, painted and resold rain barrels to raise funds in order to create Hurricane Preparedness Kits. In addition, the students created a new way to transport water from the PE field to their classroom. 

Talking Trash at Dr. Phillips High School 
Deborah Wasylik
Dr. Phillips High School, Orlando, FL
 
In most classrooms, “talking trash” to the teachers will get you suspended, but in Deborah Wasylik’s classroom it could earn you an “A”! After watching cable programs like National Geographic’s Human Footprint and Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs, students were shocked at how much garbage they generate and became totally “wasted” learning about the problems (and solutions) associated with garbage. Inspired by what they learned in the classroom, students organized Eco-Teams on campus and partnered with Universal Studies, obtaining $4,000 to create an “Adopt-A-Bin” campaign that engaged every academic department and student group on campus with the goal of making Dr. Phillips High School a greener campus. Since the project concluded, students regularly volunteer, on their own time, to clean up local neighborhoods.

Conservation at Land, Space & Sea
Marie Bienkowski, Jennifer Jabo and Michelle Lahera
Forest Ridge Elementary, Hernando, FL
 
At Forest Ridge Elementary, conservation is king. Students were challenged to understand the true meaning of conservation through a multitude of hands-on experiences, utilizing a multidisciplinary approach. Using cable programming from Discovery, Animal Planet, ESPN Classics, Planet Green, and the Disney Channel, supplemented by programs from Bay News 9, PBS, and CBS’ 60 Minutes, students learned about the range of environmental issues affecting our planet. From polluted waters to animal extinction, students became captivated with the issues and newly developed passion for the environment. In addition to designing conservation focused activities, they created a public website to document their journey and what they learned. As a result, they improved the school-recycling program. This project and its variety of activities allowed students to be engaged based on their individual modality of learning. It also provided ESE and ESOL students the opportunity to collaborate with mainstream students in developing and successfully executing an action plan. 

Going Green Starter Kits 
David Goddard and Ben Stofcheck
Academy of Environmental Science, Crystal River, FL

With help from HGTV’s Living With Ed -- Meet the Begley’s, David Goddard and Ben Stofcheck introduced the concept of “Going Green” to their 10^th grade science and 11^th grade English students at the Academy of Environmental Science. Their task was to research an environmental challenge and create PowerPoint presentations they could use to share ideas with the community on how to go green in order to reduce waste. Cable shows like Forecast Earth – Health Hazards from The Weather Channel, Water Friend and Foe segments from Discovery Channel, and CNN Student News Greener Christmas Segment also provided valuable information to generate interest and aide their research. Students reached out to local business for product donations and successfully collected materials to create “Going Green Starter Kits”, and distributed them at local presentations with various community groups. Besides helping the environment, students honed their research, communication, and technology skills and practiced how to influence others in making decision.

The Art of Computer Science 
Seth Reichelson
Ocoee High School, Ocoee FL
 
Seth Reichelson was determined to expose his computer programming students, who spend hours a day in “computer programming land,” to the world of art, forever expanding their knowledge of art beyond the Dogs Playing Poker painting they all knew. A lesson plan intended to last one week blossomed into a nine week project that covered the majority of the computer science curriculum in a non abstract way. Students were introduced to the great work of masters like Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh, Pollock, and Seurat. They improved their coding skills, simultaneously developing an appreciation of art, by creating a program to “paint” a replica of famous works of art (as seen on Ovation TV’s American Revolutionaries: Artists and PBS Art in the 21^st Century) using semi-transparent polygons. The end result was an original Java program that is capable of replicating famous works of art by randomly placing millions of polygons until a good match is found.

Brain Food - Discovering Healthy Snacks 
Susan Federico and Karen Stofcheck
Forest Ridge Elementary School, Hernando, FL
 
With a list of 50 brain foods, a.k.a. healthy snacks, a model of the brain, and cable in the classroom programming from CNN Student News, Noggin, Discovery Health, Food Network, and Nick Jr.’s website, Karen and Susan introduced the concept of healthy snacks to third graders. Through the use of reading, writing, math and science skills, they educated students about the importance of healthy foods, and even challenged students to design their own recipes from using their favorite ingredients. Cable programming was specifically used to provide background knowledge about nutrition and healthy snacks. In addition, the programming helped with food identification by providing a food history, and enhancing grammar lessons about verbs used in writing and reading recipes. In the end, students developed a healthy snack folder to take home and share with the whole family. The Nutty Orange—peeled orange sections, each spread with a thin layer of peanut butter, and sprinkled with walnuts on top—was among everyone’s favorite new healthy snack.

Entrepreneurs Incorporated 
Robin Abrams, Lucille Case, and Elizabeth Abrams
Greenwood Lake Middle School, Lake Mary, FL; Rock Lake Middle School, Longwood, FL; Meadow Woods Elementary School, Orlando, FL

As teachers of 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th graders, Robin Abrams, Lucille Case, and Elizabeth Eastman utilized a cross-curricular multi-school approach to give their students a jumpstart in the business world so that they can hit the ground running as budding young entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Lucille Case’s 6^th grade Science focused exclusively on the art of invention. They watched Cable in the Classroom programming from A&E, Discovery, and HISTORY to learn about inventors and inventions. They created inventions and sent their photos and essays to Robin Abrams 7^th grade Social Studies class which was working on a unit about becoming entrepreneurs. Watching some of the same programs Lucille Case shared with her students, they analyzed the inventions and created marketing campaigns for promoting the inventions. Elizabeth Eastman’s 5^th graders also focused on exploring career opportunities that inventors can have, creating artwork that depicted these careers that incorporated student photos. Video of the students projects were shown throughout all three schools reaching over 2,800 students.

The Wonderful World of Work 
Becky O’Connell and Mary Tyler
Inverness Primary School

Becky O’Connell and Mary Tyler have proven that it’s never too early to start thinking about your career options in life. Working with two kindergarten classes at Inverness Primary School, they designed a project that introduced the concept of community as a place where they live and work, and explored a variety of future job opportunities. Various educational clips from shows like Everyone Has a Job and Careers for the 21^st Century: Building Trades from Discovery Education helped introduce the concept of a job and job skills. Clips from HISTORY’s Extreme Train, Guts and Bolts, and Modern Marvels gave students an up close and personal tour of extreme work environments. Students were able to make the connection how going to school and learning helps people prepare for their jobs. They shared their new learned knowledge at a Career Tea—an activity for parents and community members.