A Walk in the Park

By Martin Koning Bastiaan



Author's Note: This is a scenario for using Java applets in an educational setting. It was originally published on Apple's Educational Object Economy (EOE) Web site, and reflects the philosophies of our project. We encourage you to visit our Web site and join our growing community.

Janet Canfield is a 5th grade public school teacher. Since her school is in an urban setting, she emphasizes the study and experience of nature. To do this, she takes her class for nature walks in a nearby park. This year she wants students to take a deeper interest in the fauna and flora on the trails.

In the past, Janet gave students introductory readings on plants and animals, explaining their differences and relationships with one another. She also assigned them additional library research on specific animals and plants of interest. This year she wants students to do their research and preliminary learning with the aid of the three classroom computers connected to the World Wide Web. Having made only occasional use of computers in earlier classroom exercises (paper writing and games), she enlists the help of the school technology coordinator. He recommends the Educational Object Economy (EOE) Web site as a place to begin.

After looking at what is available, Janet notices that there is a nice Java applet with matching exercises, including some on botany. One in particular catches her eye -- it has pictures of trees, their leaves, and a selection of names. The task is to match the names with the pictures (using drag & drop methods). There is a problem with the exercise though; the trees are not local and the program does not save the scores.

While exploring the EOE Web site she discovers that entering into discussions with users and developers has several benefits: In addition to finding solutions to her immediate classroom problems and participating in a virtual community, she can also become involved in the generation and improvement of the Java applets that interest her. She decides to test this by inquiring about a program that will allow her to alter plant and animal graphics/names as well as access student scores to the completed matching exercises.

Her first problem is easily solved: she is told that the applet already allows people to create their own matching exercises by adding their own graphics and names. She also finds that she can create more than just matching exercises she can make identification and sorting exercises as well.

The solution to the second problem comes when three Java programmers answer her plea. Although they are short on time, they distribute the programming task between themselves and lighten the load. Within four days they add a feature to the program that lets students download their scores when they are ready to exit the applet. This new, improved applet is now reposted to the EOE Web site so that everyone can benefit from the improvements.

Having resolved her problems, Janet has another thought -- if she can make these exercises, why can't her students? With their help, she can create countless new activities. She wants to get rid of the Palm tree (her state does not have any) and add some of the more common trees in her area. She also wants to include a few exercises on bird identification -- especially those they encounter during the nature walk.

A week before the walk, she divides her students into groups and asks them to find pictures of local plants and animals and create exercises around them. Because they are creating their own exercises, the students are enthusiastic participants. They post their new exercises to the applet's original site and add their own objects to the Educational Object Economy's library of Java applets. Now people from all geographic locations can see and use their exercises!

On the day of the field trip Janet’s students are armed with printouts of their exercises and quite a bit of interest in finding the plants and animals they have "virtually" discovered. The biggest problem is keeping them on the path! They want to get a closer look at this tree here and that bush there, dig up a mushroom here, examine a bird's nest...She has never seen such interest nature before! She wonders if she can ever convince them head back to school. Because many students find unidentifiable trees and insects, they are ready to return and update their work.

"Will they ever move on to anything else?" Janet asks herself. "Maybe if I find another applet!"



Comments: Send your comments to Martin Koning Bastiaan - mjkb@trp.research.apple.com



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