Project Summary - Amelia Earhart is a web site project developed by two students in fourth and fifth grade. Katie and Alex expressed a desire early in the year to complete a research project that would use the meduim of the Internet to share the results of their research. As part of the ongoing process to work towards completing Oregon Benchmark Standards, all students in my classes work on projects which address many of the content areas. Katie had previously entered a HyperStudio project in The Lane County Achievement Fair and wanted to create a poject with a partner this year that she could enter in both The Webster and The Achievement Fair. I support my students in the endeavor of individual projects. The process that students go through in the develpment of the project is almost more valuable than the end product which they create.

Project Planning Process - Katie, Alex and I began to discuss the possibility of this project with their families around the time of parent conferences in October, l998. Katie expressed a desire to create a web site after seeing the project which I had helped two students create last year. The students selected this topic themselves. They began their research by going to the school and city Libraries and continued by searching the Internet. Katie's parents were especially helpful in assisting her in reseach at home. As others learned about their project, people would bring them magazine articles and even a video about Amelia's life. The girls then began to creat storyboards, sketching out their project. Our District TAG Coordinator assisted the girls by meeting with them two hours a week starting in January, helping them learn the technological skills necessary to complete their project and assisting us with troubleshooting. We kept a weekly log of activities, in effect creating a journal. By mid January the girls began to actually build the web pages. They used a scanner, digital camera and learned to download from the internet. Katie's penpal from Arizona had her teacher send us a site for free animated clip art that the girls utilized. Our goal was to have the project completed by early March. I have learned from prior experience that projects this large actually take about three weeks longer than you plan. Always allow yourself and the students a safety margin of time.

Project Goals Addressed Through This Project - The student objective for this project included both the process of development and the completion of the end product; the web site. The process included work towards Benchmark Standards and the product is a Benchmark scored work sample that becomes part of their student portfolios. Specific Oregon Benchmark Standards (Grade ) addressed by the project are:

Scientific Inquiry

•Ask questions and make predictions that are based on observations and can be explored through simple investigations.

•Design an investigation to answer questions or check predictions.

•Collect, organize, and summarize data from investigations.

•Analyze, interpret, and summarize data from investigations.

Reading

•Locate information and clarify meaning by using illustrations, tables of contents, glossaries, indexes, graphs, charts, diagrams, and/or tables.

•Identify relationships, images, patterns, or symbols and draw conclusions about their meanings in printed material.

•Analyze and evaluate information and form conclusions.

Writing

•Convey clear main ideas and supporting details in ways appropriate to topic, audience, and purpose.

•Use correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalizations, and paragraphing.

Social Science Analysis

•Examine an event ,issue, or problem through inquiry and research.

• Gather, use and document information from multiple sources.

•Explain characteristics of an event, issue, or problem, suggesting possible causes and results.

• Identify a response or solution, and explain why it makes sense, using support from research.

Social Science - Civics and Government

•Identify how citizens can make their voices heard responsibly in the political process.

Assessment: The end product is evaluated using the Oregon Speaking and Writing scoring guides. Katie and Alex will present their project orally to their classmates. Also, the storyboards which the girls created are a valuable tool in performing assessment of the standards. Conversations with the girls as they worked on their project provided me with a understanding of their level of growth and the develpment of the skills they have gained as they went through this process of creation.