Welcome to the supporting website for Mercer County Public Schools' Summer Integrating Technology Within the Curriculum Institute! We hope that this site will become a handy and useful resource to Institute participants as they work both in and after the Institute.

General Institute Resources

• The Institute Overview PowerPoint presentation from the first day, opening, session
• Overview agenda for the entire institute
• The Technology-Infused Unit Template used by teams to plan and document their curriculum-based work
• Guidelines for teams' final presentations

Technology Experiences

These sessions are designed to model the effective classroom use of key instructional technologies. Participants will work as students in model classroom activities such as webquests, data analysis, and multimedia presentation. The links in the following descriptions provide access to the handouts and other materials used during the experiences.

Mill Girls Webquest

You are a 13 year old girl who has been sent to the factory to earn money to help the family farm…… Travel back in history to the 1800's and find out what life was like for the Lowell "Mill Girls." Through this interactive research experience you will take on the role of a Lowell "Mill Girl" from the 1800's. You and your fellow mill girls will write an editorial to the Lowell Sun telling them about the working and living conditions in Lowell. There are a number of worksheets used within this webquest.

Raisin Estimation -- Graphing in Excel

Get ready for your new job as a Quality Control Engineer at Sun-Maid® Raisin Factory! As part of your training, you will explore the concept of estimation and create spreadsheets and bar graphs in Excel. You will work with other trainees to analyze three different types of graphs and use comparison techniques to assess your estimation skills and test for averages and variation in raisin inventory.

PowerPoint Project -- Exploring the World!

Pack your bags! In this class, you will explore countries around the world and use the Internet to learn about differences in environment, culture, and attractions across the continents. As a culminating project, you will work in groups to create a multimedia PowerPoint presentation about your assigned country. There is also a worksheet that we will use for this highly interactive session.

During this experience, we will use the following WWW resources:

• Lonely Planet Online
• Pictures of Places
• Altavista's Image Search

Technology Workshops

These workshops are designed to provide hands-on experience using the tools highlighted during the "Technology Experiences" during the first half of the Institute. The links in the following descriptions provide access to the handouts and ancillary materials used during these sessions.

Using and Integrating MS Office Tools

In this workshop participants will learn how to design a newsletter using Microsoft Office Tools. Participants will explore intermediate features of Word such as layout design, adding graphics, and inserting WordArt. In addition, participants will learn how to make a spreadsheet, use formulas, and create graphs in Excel and be able to move those graphs into the newsletter.

We also have more detailed, step-by-step, guides to MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Using and Integrating Networked Resources

In this workshop participants will learn about the different types of search engines and when they should be used. Participants will also be introduced to curriculum resources that are available on the World Wide Web. There will be time for participants to explore shown resources.

One particularly valuable resource for Webquests is the Webquest Page at San Diego State University.

We also have the powerpoint presentation Heather used to introduce this session.

Using and Integrating Multimedia Presentation Tools

In this workshop participants will learn basic and intermediate functions of Microsoft PowerPoint while creating their own multimedia presentation. In addition, participants will learn how to insert sound and graphics from the Internet into their presentations.

For more detailed information and step-by-step directions on creating a PowerPoint presentation, see our detailed PowerPoint guide.

Other Materials and Resources

• National Technology Standards
  • National Technology Standards for Students (NETS)
  • National Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T)
  • Technology Standards for School Administrators (TSSA)
• WV Instructional Goals and Objectives (IGOs)
• Sun Associates Comprehensive List of Web Resources for Educators
• Mercer County Public Schools website
• Educational Software Information
  • Software Reviews
  • Educational Resources (a place to locate and purchase software)
  • The Educational Software Institute (another place to locate and purchase software)

Many of the files on this site are Adobe Acrobat PDF files. If you need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these files, you can download the reader here.

Information on this site that has been produced by Sun Associates is Copyright 1997 - 2013 Sun Associates and is available for individual, one-time, use by educators. Duplication is prohibited without permission. All other material is the property of its authors and Sun Associates makes no warranty for its use or accuracy.