Full Text:

Sixth Graders Embark On An African Expedition

(with photos)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

Ever dream of riding a mountain bike through Africa? For the last six weeks,

Newtown Middle School sixth graders have been doing the next best thing.

The students are following the path of eight scientists on their 1,500 mile

trek from Lokichar, Kenya, through the Serengeti Plain, past Mount Kilimanjaro

and through Massai villages on their way to the Great Rift Valley in Tanzania,

on their computers.

The Internet site, called "AfricaQuest" is produced by a company called

Classroom Connect. It sells subscriptions to the "quest" for $249 for five

classrooms.

Early in the online expedition, the students were invited to vote on one of

three locations that the team would visit in Kenya. The subscribing classes

overwhelmingly picked Central Island, near Turkana Desert in Kenya, so the

group of scientists went there.

While on route, each adventurer gathered interesting facts and questions in

their area of expertise, whether it be cultural studies or zoology.

Each weekday, the scientist added these to the Internet site, under headings

such as "Myths and Legends," "Science Stumpers," "History Mysteries," "Dan's

Dilemma" and "Cristina's Critters."

Arline Lathrop, social studies teacher at NMS, particularly liked the

write-ups of interviews with young people that the bike team met on their

travels.

Newtown students were amazed to discover that the children interviewed in

Kenya didn't know what candy was.

Once when a very bright boy in Kenya, age 11, told the quest that he would

have to quit school because he couldn't afford to continue with his education,

the Newtown students wanted to find a way to help him.

Mrs Lathrop said her students also liked being able to click on an African

musical instrument to hear what it sounds like, which is something you can't

get from a textbook.

Weekly mystery photos allow the students to draw on their knowledge of African

cultures and use clues to identify traditional African artifacts. Alyssa

McIntyre and Kristen Rockwell, sixth grade students in Tom DiBenedetto's

class, were pleased when they correctly identified this week's photo as a fire

starter.

Anna Pister, sixth grader, explained how the large stick with holes in it goes

outside of the smaller stick and dried grass, and the friction from twirling

the sticks is enough to start a fire.

Skye Perry, sixth grader, agreed. He said that he actually tried it once, when

camping with his father last year and eventually it worked.

Then the class selected one answer which they edited together and e-mailed to

the AfricaQuest webmaster. Brian Miles, sixth grader said, "You feel like,

really special, if your answer goes in the computer" (to be e-mailed). The

answer from one of the subscribing schools is then posted on the site.

Jeanne Bugay, library media specialist, said that the NMS staff is involving

parents every step of the way. Students who have Internet access at home have

been showing their parents the site from home. Parents without home access

have been invited into the library to see the site from there.

To culminate the project, students are preparing travel guides, based on what

they learned during the six week program, and parents have volunteered to have

them printed.

Jeanne Bugay said that she is interested in subscribing to Classroom Connects

next online expedition, which will be to the Galapagos Islands (called

GalapagosQuest) for the seventh graders.

She said that the students clearly enjoy this kind of learning, and she

believes that the GalapagosQuest will also help students improve their reading

of non-fiction materials and science.

Online expeditions to a variety of locations (some free of charge) are

becoming increasingly popular on the Internet. MayaQuest (following a Mayan

dig) and Assualt of Everest (detailing the Everest climb which ended in

disaster in May of 1996) were two earlier popular online expeditions.

Information on AfricaQuest and other online expeditions produced by Classroom

Connect can be found at http:\africaquest.classroom.com.