TESSERACT SCHOOL INTEGRATES VIRTUAL-LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
INTO MIDDLE SCHOOL CURRICULUM
PHOENIX, ARIZONA—March 24, 2010—Students today were born in
the midst of the Digital Revolution. They start school—even at the youngest of
ages—as digital natives. It was the awareness of this that led Randy Thomas,
Tesseract School’s IT specialist, along with Tesseract’s librarian, middle school
history and middle school English educators, to create a virtual environment
called Salem.
Based off the 17th century New England town and the book, “The Crucible,”
Thomas and the educators at Tesseract recognized the Salem project as yet
another opportunity to integrate technology into the middle school curriculum.
“We recognized this as the amazing teaching tool it continues to be,” stated
Thomas. “By using virtual environments, we are utilizing an environment that
students are already familiar with through multiplayer games, so I made the
suggestion that we build our own virtual environment here at Tesseract to help
engage the students in learning by using technology in the classroom in a
different way.”
Prior to the introduction of Salem, Tesseract students worked in a virtual
environment—which continues to be utilized—through the River City Project, an
interactive computer simulation for students in sixth through ninth-grade science
class that was developed by Harvard University and Arizona State University with
funding from the National Science Foundation. Through River City students
learn scientific inquiry by traveling back in time, utilizing technology and skills
from the 21st century to address 19th century problems. The concept for
creating Tesseract’s virtual environment, Salem, came to Thomas after seeing
the effects the River City Project had on students’ learning.
Tesseract’s seventh-grade students have been utilizing the Salem environment
in their writing lab, history and English classes since the program was introduced
with the start of the 2007-2008 school year. The premise for the unit is that the
students have been hired by the National Museum of American History to travel
back in time and study Salem during the times of the witch trials in order to
create a new Salem museum. While there, they are tasked with studying
Salem’s economy, religion, geography, government and society from the
perspective of Salem residents to aid in accurately rebuilding the museum.
“This has been an incredibly successful part of our middle school curriculum,”
said Thomas. “Salem started out as a new and unusual way for us to connect
with the students and capture their attention. However, there are other powerful
advantages to utilizing virtual environments—students are doing much more than
reading about history, they are experiencing history, conducting research and
reading information that requires them to come to conclusions. This is not a
simple thing for seventh-graders, yet they are doing this without many of the typical frustrations. They aren’t stressed about the amount of questions they
have to answer, and they enjoy the search process.”
Thomas’s original proposal for the virtual environment was shared with schools
worldwide when he was invited to present it to educators at the 2008 Association
for Educational Communications and Technology’s (AECT) International
Convention. Thomas was also selected by the Arizona Board of Education to
participate on the State Technology Plan to review IT within Arizona schools.
In addition to the Salem project, Tesseract incorporates technology into student’s
everyday lives via its wireless campuses and high school laptop program as well
as through classrooms outfitted with interactive SMART Tablets, projectors,
video capabilities, desktop computers and laptop carts. Technology is integrated
into Tesseract’s student-centered, innovative curriculum in many ways including
Google Sketch-Up for architecture and graphic design projects; Skype for
communicating with peers nationally and internationally; blogs for research
projects and information sharing; PowerPoint for presentations; and computers
for a variety of additional day-to-day tasks and projects.
“The Salem project is a great lead-in to the virtual-learning environment that our
ninth-graders experience,” said Chris LaBonte, Tesseract’s director of middle and
high school. “In our high school curriculum we extend upon the middle school
foundation by using the newest technologies to connect our students to students
around the globe, expanding their perspectives and enhancing their foreign
language learning experiences. By integrating technology into our daily
curriculum, students are able to acquire the skills they need to thrive in a rapidly
changing, highly technological society.”
About Tesseract:
A leader in education in the Valley, Tesseract School prepares students to excel in college and beyond, lead lives of purpose, and become ethical and compassionate citizens with a global perspective. Tesseract’s innovative educational approach engages students in learning, enabling them to master the basics and become critical thinkers. As a non-profit, independent private school for students in preschool through grade 12, resources are directed to recruit and retain outstanding educators and continually enhance the school’s two campuses in Phoenix and Paradise Valley. For information visit www.tesseractschool.org or call 480.991.1770.
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