Mike and Jane Madden and Fred Whitehouse

This is a micro-project designed to both introduce teachers to integrating multimedia authoring into their curriculum through easy-to-use tools such as eZediaMX and to the rich array of teaching resources already available to enhance the curriculum. The full project explores this topic in more depth.

First in a series, this project also provides individuals with a heightened awareness of the importance of the agricultural sector to modern society. Agriculture is foundational to the economic survival and physical well-being of a nation. A safe, secure food supply is something many individuals take for granted.

This project attempts to model how educators can make use of Internet-based resources to have students deepen their understanding of content through the creation of multimedia projects. This first example has a focus on rice. For much of the world’s population, rice is a critical grain. What many people do not know is that rice is both a major crop and export product that has played a significant part in US history.

A tremendous resource for educators everywhere, the US National Park Service has done an excellent job of producing lesson plans that are based on national historic places. A collection of seventy-five lesson plans has been produced, correlated to the national history standards for grades 5 to 12.  The lesson plans are available at: http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/standards.htm

The purpose of the micro-project is to have users construct the first part of the larger project. The focus in the introductory piece is a three-frame project that can provide the front-end navigation to the other larger segments of the full Rice Project. Ultimately, the Rice Project will contrast the rice farming conditions that were first encountered in South Carolina in the late 1600’s with the farming situation that came to exist in the other states that took the lead in rice production, by contrasting past and present conditions. Teachers will be given ideas and resources to go further and link rice production to local and global economic issues, science, health, math, social studies, and art.

The project booklet that will be posted as a link off of the resources page for this project contains annotated website information that can assist educators and students in obtaining all the necessary resources to expand this project and customize it for their own classroom use. At the same time, the project is also designed to enable educators to look at the available resources in their own vicinity to build similar projects.