WHAT IS IT: The Eden Palms Computer Learning Center summer program began with a question from the principal of Baldwin Elementary School: "Can you help the children in science?"

So, we combined some natural science, a little math and a lot of hands-on computer science to make an exciting summer program.

We planted a Bird & Butterfly Garden as a place to collect data (and applied to have it registered as a Certified Backyard Wildlife Habitat with the National Wildlife Federation.) Parents and children came to hear a speaker from the Wild Bird Center. Children & adult volunteers put up nesting material, birdhouses, and bird feeders to start collecting data on local birds. Seventeen children got involved by making predictions of what birds we'd attract. We rescued some injured birds and found abandoned nests. And we counted, charted and graphed data on the computer.

HOW MANY CHILDREN PARTICIPATED: 25

HOW MANY STAFF: 3

HOW WAS IT CREATED:
During the school year we have a Homework Club. We help with homework completion but encourage special individual projects like writing and desktop publishing. We also follow closely the school district schedule of special events like the Young Authors Faire and Science Fair, encouraging children to participate. Our curriculum is actually "underneath" the school's. That is, our special added value is that we focus on digital literacy skills. The Bird & Butterfly garden actually began in early spring to help the children at Baldwin Elementary School (Oak Grove School District) prepare for their Science Fair.

The summer project was aimed at continuing the momentum of the Homework Club. We wanted to focus on science education so we designed modules where research on the Internet, report writing and data collection were integral to what the children did.

The garden was the major focus. We obtained plastic covered charts (field guides) of the commonly occurring local bird and butterfly species. I designed forms to record the children's predictions of which birds & which butterflies they would see by the end of the summer based on what they remembered seeing last summer and what we planned to put in the garden. We researched favorite bird, caterpillar & butterfly foods. Forms were designed for recording the types of birds that visited and what foods they preferred. The same was done for butterflies.

We brought in one expert speaker. The library bus comes every two weeks so children checked out their own field guides, etc. Staff members & friends provided me with interesting objects like feathers, wild bird eggshells, old bird nests and books.

Twice during the summer children found injured birds on the site and cared for the properly until they could be taken to an animal rescue site.

Since flight was a common characteristic of both birds & butterflies it seemed natural to have a paper airplane contest as a lead-in to discussions of the mechanics of flight. It also proved to be a great exercise in practical skills like measurement using a tape measure and data collection. I purchased a set of "White Wings" model airplanes to use but the expense was unnecessary. Paper airplanes sufficed!

Science projects here require students to collect their data in Excel and generate a chart. The children did that with the data they collected over the summer.

The projects require illustrations too so they worked with clip art databases and all had a chance to use our Kodak DC260 telephoto digital camera.

The CAD software, simple as it was, turned out to be more of a challenge to the children than I expected. I was the one who ended up doing the 3-D model of the garden and demonstrating to them how shadows change through the season.

FROM THE PARTICIPANTS:

"How can butterflies fly?"
(Let's do an experiment with paper airplanes and learn about "lift." Show me a graph of your results)

"What will make the Monarchs come?"
(Look it up on the Internet. Hint: try www.monarchwatch.org)

"It says that butterflies won't eat from flowers that are in the shade. Where should I plant these?"
(Use our 3D Landscape software to plot where the shadows will fall throughout the day all summer long.)

"Hey, this looks like a grasshopper but it is bright green!"
(Look on the Encarta CD or try Zane's CD encyclopedia on Insects)"

"Is this one a Grey Hairstreak or another Skipper?"
(Look it up!)

"How do I make the picture I took show up in the center of my Web page and not the left corner?"
(OK class, time to talk about the "<table>...</table>" tag!)

"Is it my turn to use the digital camera now?"

The single best site all around was Monarch Watch:
http://www.monarchwatch.org

EASIEST PART OF PROJECT:
Teaching the children digital photography. We used a Kodak DC 260 camera.

MOST DIFFICULT:
The CAD (Sierra's 3-d landscape designer) program was a little too hard for them.