TWO BPSD TEACHERS PARTNER WITH CMU TO BRING TECHNOLOGY INTO THEIR CLASSROOMS
ethel Park
BETHEL PARK SCHOOL DISTRICT
NAMS Fifth Grade Teacher Joe Rosi shows two of his students how to gather data on their Chromebooks .
TWO BPSD TEACHERS PARTNER WITH CMU TO BRING TECHNOLOGY INTO THEIR CLASSROOMS
Two Bethel Park School District teachers are among a group of 12 Pittsburgh area teachers from eight school districts who were selected to participate in a summer program at Carnegie Mellon University focused on Data Fluency .
Participating in this program are Bethel Park High School Physics Teacher Lee Cristofano and Neil Armstrong Middle School Fifth Grade Teacher Joseph Rosi . The program is designed to help K-12 students become fluent with data and technology .
The teachers spent two weeks at CMU ’ s CREATE ( Community Robotic , Education and Technology Empowerment ) Lab to explore ways to apply the concept of data and technology fluency in their schools .
The teachers found out about the program thanks to an email sent to all Bethel Park teachers by Janet O ’ Rourke , Bethel Park Director of Secondary Education . Mr . Cristofano and Mr . Rosi decided to apply as a team , and they were one of three teams selected .
“ In our application , we pitched a project that will have our students working together to collect and interpret data ,” said Mr . Rosi . “ We thought it would be a good experience for the younger students to be able to work together with the older students .
“ We want the students to understand that in today ’ s world , anything they want to do or know about is data driven . My goal as their teacher is to help them learn how they can use this data to tell their story . We want them to understand their thinking as multidisciplinary , something that involves writing , math , science and art — essentially the STEAM model .”
Mr . Rosi envisions his fifth graders using their classroom Chromebooks to research and collect data , then create spreadsheets based on that data before converting the data into a data map , with assistance from the high school students , to get a more complete visual picture than what a typical spreadsheet can provide . Once the students see what the data has to show them , Mr . Rosi will have his students write essays based on their findings .
58 Bethel Park
Mr . Cristofano has been a proponent of Big Data for the past three years , successfully mentoring groups of Bethel Park High School students involved in the Big Data Jam competition against teams of students from other area high schools . “ Everybody knows I love Big Data ,” he explained .
Mr . Cristofano loves Big Data so much that he and Bethel Park High School Marketing Teacher Emily Smoller are co-teaching a class on Big Data at the High School — the first class of its kind in the area . He is also working with Bethel Park High School Teachers Charles Youngs , Matt Short and Jonathan Derby to offer a Pilot Ninth Grade STEAM class this year at the high school .
Within the first two weeks of school , Mr . Cristofano could already see the impact of data fluency on his students .
Jessica Pachuta , a Project Manager for the CMU Robotics Institute , explained that the CREATE Lab at CMU has been in existence for the past 10 years , developing several high-tech tools for the classroom . The next step for the CREATE Lab was to establish a partnership with area teachers and put technology into the hands of the students to see if it is as beneficial as they anticipate in helping students to become data fluent in the classroom .
“ We know that good teaching is a collaborative partnership ,” said Ms . Pachuta . “ The two weeks we spent in the summer with the teachers was an exciting time , because they brought a collective energy to the process .
“ Having these teachers pilot technology that other folks have not seen yet is exiting . It is important for students to be able to have access to data , learn how to create interactive mapping , analyze the data , figure out what it means to them and then for them to develop an action plan for how they will respond to the data .
“ Our goal is to eventually be able to provide free or costeffective technology for schools to use .”
Mr . Cristofano is already using the Ricoh Beta camera , a small , hand-held device that can generate 360 degree photos and videos , and sync via wi-fi to a cell phone . His Ninth Grade STEAM Pilot students will be using that camera to make videos about their favorite places at the High School . Ms . Pachuta explained that the program wants the teachers to experiment with this camera to put them in a mindset of thinking in 360 degrees , rather than in 2-D .
He is also looking forward to working with the Gigapan Robot , which is a commercial spin off of the camera technology used on the Mars Rover . He and Mr . Rosi were able to meet and interact with the CMU inventors of the Mars Rover technology , who are also part of the Data Fluency Project .
The 14-month project is funded by a $ 593,000 planning grant from The Heinz Endowments , which will enable the group to develop a pilot program for local schools , including developing tools and methods that will empower students to use data and technology for asking questions and exploring their environment , for telling cohesive stories , and for articulating opinions and arguments . The CREATE Lab will provide access to visualization software for making sense out of large data sets , to virtual reality tools and to other technologies and expertise .
Serving as an Education Support and Outreach Resource to the program is Dr . MaryLu Hutchins from West Liberty College , who is serving as a liaison for the teachers and is a co-designer