APPLE VALLEY SCHOOL

    Apple Valley School is a simulation that helps students to develop a beginning sense of history as they learn about school during the pioneer times and compare them to today’s schools.  Students pretend to go to a one-room schoolhouse in the last half of the 19th century and work to earn points in order to graduate from the Apple Valley School.

     Students learn about the beginnings of the public school system and experience what it would be like to attend a one-room schoolhouse.  They role-play life as a teacher and a student in the past as they develop an appreciation of progress made in education.

     The students begin their journey back in time when they are given a new student identity with a new name, age, and family history.  Each student will write diary entries, conduct interviews, and work in small cooperative groups where they will make decisions about simulated problems.  Through these activities the students earn points toward graduation.

     Your child will bring home a list of projects about pioneer days called CHALLENGE TASKS.  If your child chooses to work on a CHALLENGE TASK at home, try to be supportive of his or her efforts.  You might help gather materials and offer suggestions when needed, but don’t do the project for your child.  Enthusiasm and effort are more important than a “perfect” diorama, story, or poem.

THE GREAT SOLAR SYSTEM RESCUE

The Great Solar System Rescue is a cooperative learning adventure set in the year 2210. During each of the four Rescue Missions, a team of student experts is challenged to locate and rescue a space probe lost in our solar system.  Role-playing scientific experts, students use geology, planetary science, chemistry, and other subjects to guide their search.

    The CD-ROM contains four rescue missions and a video library filled with movies and stills.  This library offers information about planetary basics, planets and their moons, and ancient skywatchers.  It complements and extends the four rescue missions.  Students will analyze information given to them by a transmission they have viewed, and then using all available data the team decides on which planet the lost probe is located.  Once the probe has been located, the team selects tests to help provide more information.  Pooling their information, the team decides which of four rescue plans will best complete the mission.

    Additional activities introduce important science and social science content.  Planetary science activities explore the orbital, atmospheric, geologic, and chemical characteristics of each planet.  Earth and general science activities explore mass, volume, and density, the evolution of surface features, and the greenhouse effect.  Social science activities explore cross-cultural views of the solar system, the history of planetary exploration, and the relationship between science and historical content.  Skills addressed include: analyzing graphic, numerical, and textual information, interpreting visual information, making hypotheses, validating theories, identifying cause and effect relationships, and weighing alternatives.

The Environment

Decisions, Decisions: The Environment is a wonderfully rich mix of science and social studies. Students interpret science and apply what they learn to make public policy decisions. They experience political trade-offs that accompany any course of action. Students learn about landfills, land-use issues, recycling, the greenhouse effect, and water pollution.

The Environment places students in the middle of a fictitious local pollution crisis that brings environmental issues – and the attendant public policy debates – to life.  Role-playing the mayor of Alpine, and supported by four advisors – a scientist, a campaign manager, and environmentalist, and an economist – students tackle the situation.  Along the way they confront and learn about waste disposal problems, source reduction and recycling, land use conflicts, endangered species, and the costs of environmental quality.

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