This is an Internet project set up to help evaluate the role of the Internet in the development of information skills in the Junior School.

Participating Schools.

Shirley Crawford's class, Hikutaia Primary, New Zealand and Bev Greenberg's class, Francis W Parker School, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Age Level: 5 - 7 years.

Time Frame: From 26th April 1998 - New Zealand, Term Two.

Theme: Our Place.

Setting: School and Family life in Hikutaia and Chicago.

Achievement Objectives:

Students from both countries will demonstrate knowledge and understandings of why particular places are important for people.

Students from both countries will use the Internet to develop awareness of similarities and differences in their life style and the places they live in.

Students will collect, process and communicate information about children of their own age living in a country other than their own.

The students will use inquiry methods to facilitate their learning.

The Skills Focus Will Be:

a. How Children Gather Information Using the Internet as a Research Tool by

* the use of questions

* the collection and recording of information

* the sorting of information

* the making of a generalization based on findings

* the communication of findings on a class web page, (Hikutaia School)

Introduction to The Project.

KWL Chart - as a class children list,

* What they think they know about the other school / place. (K)

Both class's ideas about each other to be put on the Internet so each class can work towards clarifying misconceptions.

* What they want to know about the other school / place. (W)

Both class's "What we want to know" questions put on the Internet so each class can work towards answering them.

* What they have learnt about the other school / place. (L) - End of study class evaluation to be put on the Internet.

Method:

Children will need to be guided towards wanting to know about the following:

* Location - exactly where in the world is the place we are learning about?

* What type of community we live in, is it rural or urban?

* What kind of homes we live in - flats, apartment blocks, houses etc?

* What sort of climate we have and how it affects our daily lives.

* What our school life is like, what games do we play, what makes our school, place, special?

* What we do with our families for recreation, what happens in the weekends?

Learning Activities:

* Each class locates their home town on a map to be scanned for the Internet.

* Each class records a daily weather chart for 1 - 2 weeks. These will be scanned for the children to make generalizations about the weather.

* Each class will provide a photo of their school and a description of it.

* Each class will provide a graph showing the ratio of boys and girls in their class. These will be scanned and put on the web for comparison.

* Class KeyPal letters will be exchanged. These could make observations under the following headings,

1. E Mail related specifically to who we are - each child tells a little about themselves.

2. E Mail telling about our school - each child tells about our school and the things we do.

3. E Mail telling about what we do at weekends - each child tells a little about family activities.

4. E Mail telling about the weather / season - each child tells about what the weather is and how it affects their daily activities.

* The children will write reports, record simple diaries, draw pictures, do observational drawings and paint pictures to facilitate the information gathering process. Selected pictures will be scanned and writing will be published on Hikutaia School's class web page.

Examples.

1. Picture - Here I am dressed for todays weather.

2. Picture - This is my home.

3. Picture - Here I am coming to school.

4. Picture - This is something we do at our school that makes it special eg. Easter, whole school makes buns, Easter egg hunt.

Evaluation:

The Web Site - how has it best served each classes needs? How has it served to facilitate information gathering?

KWL Chart - what is the level of difference in class knowledge, comparison of the K and L.

What generalizations can the children now make as a result of their findings?

What was the level of interest for children that this work generated?