The Adirondack mountains are a magical place for many people, a fact that is not lost on the high school seniors in New Hartford High's Ecology classes. For 35 years now, New Hartford students have experienced the central Adirondacks at one of its most unique and special places, Camp Huntington on Raquette Lake. Four days and three nights of learning, teamwork and physical activity characterize their time spent at Huntington. The students however, come away with strong memories not of poisonous mushrooms or scat identification, but of friendship, camaraderie and trust. Even as these memories are held fondly, in the years that follow their trip to Raquette Lake some of these memories will fade. In years past, to preserve their memories and reflect on their experiences, students were asked to produce a “memory book” of their camp experience that included photographs, writings, and other mementos of their time at Camp Huntington. Enter digital video. Starting in 2002, teacher James McNair (pictured above working with some of his students on an iMovie project) began recording the trips to Huntington using digital video and digital still cameras. Students then use the iLife suite of software applications to create a six to eight minute video that tells their story. Upon completion they present their work to their peers at a “film festival” held in class. Finally they are asked to burn their project to DVD so that they will have a record of their experience that will last a lifetime. “Once students understand how much fun and how creative the video editing process can be it is hard to keep them off the machines” said McNair. He added, “The pride and personal investment that students feel generally helps the students take the project seriously and produce great work”. Digital video can be a powerful tool in the classroom but it can also be source of frustration and heartache. “It has been a learning experience for me as much as it has for the students. Any teacher interested in incorporating a video component into their curriculum should consider conferencing with someone who has already tried it”, said McNair. Acquiring the proper equipment, the loss of student work and the learning curve for new software applications are common complaints, but are easily overcome. There are regular Teacher Center classes offered in iMovie and a little bit of training can go a long way in paving the road to success. McNair adds, “Don’t be afraid to give it a try. Working with digital video can be a very engaging activity for students and in the right spot could be just the curricular enhancement you are looking for.”

Now that the end of the year is almost here, you might be thinking about packing up some items in your classroom so they are safe over the summer. Have you thought about doing this with some of your computer files as well? If not, this way is one way you can avoid "losing" work over the summer as well as have copies of these files on hand so you can work on them at home during the summer.

Believe it or not, Mac OS X makes the process of burning a data CD or DVD incredibly easy and straightforward. You simply insert a blank disc, move documents to that disc in the Finder, and then then tell the computer to "burn" the files onto the disc with a laser. Many eMacs in the district come with Combo drives that can burn CD-Rs as well as read DVDs. In addition, several units in each school (typically in the Media Center Labs) have SuperDrives which can burn CDs and DVDs! You will need to find and use a machine with either of these capabilities to burn discs of your data. The steps below describe how to burn data files (such as documents as opposed to music or movies) onto an optical disc.

1. To start, you will have to place a blank media disc into the optical (a.k.a. CD) drive of your computer. Press the Eject key on the keyboard, place the blank disc in the tray, and press Eject again to close the drive.
   • If you have a Combo drive, you should use a blank CD-R (pronounced CD dash R). (CD+R will NOT work!)
   • If you have a SuperDrive, you can insert a CD-R or a blank DVD-R (pronounced DVD dash R) (DVD+R will not likely work, especially in older SuperDrives!)
   • A CD holds about 650 megabytes; a DVD holds about 4.3 gigabytes, even though the package might tell you it holds 4.7.
2. A message pops up asking what action you want to take. In this case of burning a data disc, choose the Open Finder command from the menu and then click the OK button.
   
3. The CD or DVD will appear on your Desktop. You will want to rename the CD or DVD at this point. To so this, select the disc icon on the Desktop, then click on its current name, Untitled and type a new name.
   • If you change your mind and want to take the unburned disc out of the Mac, Control-click on its icon and choose “Eject Untitled CD.'” (Untitled will be replaced with whatever name you gave it.)
4. Next, drag the files from the Finder to the disc and drop them right onto the disc's icon. You can drag as many individual files as you want—the Mac will tell you when the disc is full. This does not burn the files onto the disc. At this point, you are merely telling your Mac which files you are going to burn. You will see the files copy to the disc.
• Keep in mind that using Apple's built-in software to burn discs, you will not be able to add more data to a disc once you've burned it, so be sure to drag everything you want onto the disc at this point.
5. When you're ready to burn, do one of these things:
• Drag the disc towards the Trash. As you drag, you'll notice the Trash icon turns into the Burn icon (see picture below). Drop the disc onto this icon and let g to start burning.
• Control-click on the disc to get the contextual menu and choose the Burn Disc command.
• In a Finder window, look at the top portion of the Sidebar, you'll see the newly named disc. To its right is a Burn icon (see image to the right.) Click that to start the burn process.
• Click once on the disc to select it. From the File menu, choose Burn Disc.
6. After choosing a burn method, you'll get a message asking to confirm the process:
   Click the Burn button to start burning. It may take several minutes to burn and then verify the data on your disc.
7. After the burning process is complete, double-click the disc icon to make sure the data you want is on the disc. Then you can eject the disc (drag it to the Trash, or Control-click on it and choose Eject Disc).

Science NetLinks, another part of the MarcoPolo Network, is a partnership site sponsored between the Verizon Foundation and eight premier educational organizations such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Science NetLinks' role is to provide a wealth of standards-based resources for K-12 science educators, including lesson plans, interactives and reviewed Internet resources. A dynamic site with new content being added on a regular basis, at the heart of Science NetLinks, are standards-based lesson plans that incorporate reviewed Internet resources that can be selected according to specific benchmarks and grade ranges. Each lesson is tied to at least one learning goal and uses research-based instructional strategies that support student learning. The lessons are written for the teacher, but include student-ready materials such as student sheets (student reproducibles) or E-Sheets (online worksheets that enable students to engage directly in Internet activities). An important component of Science NetLinks is the collection of Web resources reviewed by the Science NetLinks Board of Reviewing Editors according to a rigorous set of criteria. To help locate just the right resources for your classroom, you can select and sort these resources according to specific benchmark areas and grade ranges at the Resource Index page. To help educators integrate Science NetLinks resources into a standards-based curriculum, all site content is organized around Benchmarks for Science Literacy. These benchmarks are a set of science literacy goals developed by Project 2061, AAAS's long-term initiative to reform K-12 science education nationwide.
One of the most innovative features of the site is Science Updates, 90-second radio programs presenting current science research, as well as responses to questions phoned in to Science Netlinks' Science Update Hotline (1-800-WHY-ISIT). SNL's Science Update lessons include suggestions for using the research in the K-12 classroom, as well as the transcript and Real Audio file for playback. For lots of other cool materials and ideas to add to the science lessons in your classroom, check out the site. The Quick Links above in this newsletter link directly to some key sections of this fantastic website.

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Eager to learn about new ways to use Mac OS X even better? Come to our monthly OS X "Talk, Tips & Tricks" session. Find out more.

Although the school year is over, there is some exciting technology training being planned for the summer. Below is a listing of summer tech workshops and the dates they are being offered.

Registration procedures and course details for these workshops are COMING SOON!! (You'll be able to sign up before the end of the school year so mark your calendars now and be ready!)

July 17 & 31
Microsoft Word for the Web

July 18, 19, & 20
Fun & Easy Classroom Web Publishing

August 7
Presentations With a Projector

August 8 & 9
iMovies Without a Digital Video Camera

August 14 & 15
Podcasting for the Classroom Teacher