THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 31, 1996 TAG: 9605300193
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 102 lines
A group of Kemps Landing Magnet School sixth-graders, led by science teacher Wendy Keller, recently slipped into waders and slogged knee-deep through the Back Bay marshes at False Cape State Park.
Instead of nets, a digital camera was all they needed to capture the specimens they sought for study.
Back on shore, a picnic table served as a computer desk for the portable computer that resource teacher Nathan Paxton had brought along. It enabled students to download the photos from their camera when it was full and head out to take more pictures.
For several days, modern computer technology was put to work in one of the remotest areas of Virginia Beach. In a place where cottonmouth moccasins, ticks and deer outnumber humans any day, the combination of nature and technology still appeared to be a winning one.
The Kemps Landing students were merging their science and computer studies to develop a computer program on the park. The final product provides not only an example of what the students have learned this year, but a resource on False Cape for other schools as well. The state park also will be given a disk for their archives, Paxton said.
``This was his brainchild,'' Keller noted.
At a recent conference for computer resource teachers, Paxton heard about a school in Isle of Wight County that had gotten a grant to create a multimedia tour of an area. Paxton decided to try such a project at Kemps Landing.
Paxton said this is the first time he recalls that Virginia Beach students have merged their studies in this way, but he doesn't think it will be the last. Students could do the same thing with other natural areas here or combine history and technology to create a program, for example, on historical monuments in Virginia Beach.
Keller's students were studying biomes, or biological communities, when Paxton approached her about developing a multimedia tour. She had been considering taking her students to False Cape State Park because it offers an opportunity to study so many biomes in one location.
Communities there range from the beach to the maritime forest, from freshwater marshes to deciduous forests. With so much to see in one spot, the park setting also lent itself to Paxton's multimedia computer tour, she said.
``It's perfect because the barrier spit goes from freshwater to salt,'' Keller said.
So the two teachers collaborated. Paxton and Keller took several weekend trips to False Cape to case the area and decide how and where the students could work when they arrived.
Back at school, Paxton taught the students about digital cameras and how they record photographic images on computer disks rather than on film. The students also were taught how to use the laptop computer and how to download the photos to it.
Their digital cameras couldn't hold more than 16 photos at one time. The laptops were essential to make the photography sessions work in remote False Cape where students couldn't run back to school to download images on computers there.
Keller taught the students about False Cape State Park's barrier spit communities. She showed them how to research plants and animals that live there.
Once at False Cape, groups of students with chaperones and teachers spread out over the park, each group concentrating on one of 10 biological communities. Over two days, 85 sixth-graders had the opportunity to work on the project.
Each group was equipped with recorders and field guides along with a digital camera and a laptop. School administration and other middle schools donated their laptops for the project, and Kinko's Copies donated several cameras.
The groups spent two hours at their pre-selected sites. First they stood in one spot and took photos to come up with 360 degrees worth of panoramic views of the biological community. They also took individual photos of birds, flowers and other plants and animals.
Many of the students brought their own cameras as well, so if a bird, snake or deer showed up and the digital camera was out of reach, they wouldn't lose the photo. ``We have a scanner at school so we can scan in those photos to the program,'' Keller explained.
The students working in the marsh could see an osprey nest nearby, watch the big birds soaring overhead and hear their high-pitched screeching. Redwing blackbirds with their striking red shoulder epaulets darted among the marsh grasses. If all goes well in the next few weeks, the birds will be part of the False Cape State Park computer program, too.
Students now are back in the classroom working with a computer program called HyperStudio, which will allow them to mesh pictures, sound and text to create their False Cape tour. They will be able to put ``buttons'' on the screen to point out small elements like a flower or a bird. The user will be able to use a mouse to click on the buttons and to pull up information on the plants and animals.
Next year, Paxton wants to apply for a grant to fund a yearlong project to create a multimedia tour. He would like to have enough equipment so he didn't have to borrow so much. He also would like to work at a location through the seasons and to have the time to return and re-film if necessary. He said other teachers will be enthusiastic about a yearlong effort.
``One of the reasons I'm so excited about the project,'' Paxton said, ``is there are so many parts to it. If you love research, if you love nature, if you love technology - you can take it as far as you want to go.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos by MARY REID BARROW
ABOVE: Kemps Landing Magnet School sixth-graders Trina Chakrabortty,
left, and Lindsay Tupman work with resource teacher Nathan Paxton to
download pictures taken on digital cameras to a portable computer.
BELOW: The students wade into the marsh at False Cape State Park to
study varied biological communities. by CNB