Publication of PEAS Project, West Oregon Timber Supporters, and NW Maps Co.
This newsletter by Terri Trosper, Bob Zybach, Mack Barrington, and Cynthia Phelps
PEAS is a private/public partnership dedicated to improving educational opportunities for Oregon school children in the fields of Internet communications and environmental sciences: geography, forestry, agriculture, local history, fisheries, water quality, wildlife management
Would you like to help?
PEAS needs sponsors and support.
Please contact us at: (541) 766-8118 or visit our website at: http://www.ORWW.org/PEAS/ for more details.
Mission:
Our mission is to encourage Oregon's citizens and visitors to use modern technology, historical
documentation, and scientific reasoning to understand, use, and manage Oregon's natural and
cultural resources.
PEAS Pilot Contents
The Philomath, Eddyville, Alsea, and Siletz (PEAS) Pilot Project
Oregon Websites and Watersheds Project
Profiles of Participating Schools
Coming in the February Newsletter
The Philomath, Eddyville, Alsea, and Siletz (PEAS) Pilot Project
The PEAS pilot project was set up in five local schools to test the educational ability of electronic, Internet-based websites. A computer network will include Philomath, Eddyville, Alsea, and Siletz schools with common website designs. They have the ability to use the network from existing computers, whether they are Macintosh or IBM-compatible. The schools will be working on local Internet-based environmental science projects that are concerned with natural and cultural resources. Other schools, libraries, research facilities, and agencies can use these projects as a base for their own projects.
Students will be taught to evaluate the quality and sources of information they receive via the Internet. This goal will be accomplished by assisting them to prepare and place their own project findings on an established website. They will also learn to systematically search, organize, and document related information from other Internet websites.
The project consists of two parts:
The first part of the project will be to select a local environmental sciences project from a science class at each school and display the results of the selected project on a school website.
The second part of the project will be a Top 10 List contest. The contest will encourage all students at the participating schools to obtain and use an e-mail account. They will be able to use the PEAS website to view and then vote on their favorite entries. The ten entries receiving the most votes will receive prizes.
The PEAS project was conceived by the suggestions, cooperation, and support of the West Oregon Timber Supporters (WOTS), NW Maps Co., New Albion Multimedia, Starker Forests, and Pioneer Telephone.
PEAS primary objective is to initiate knowledgable use of the Internet and the World Wide Web as tools for instructions, research, and networking by teachers and students in participating schools.
The achievement of PEAS objectives will help demonstrate the importance and the feasibility of implementing the larger Oregon Websites and Watersheds project.
Oregon Websites and Watersheds Project
The Oregon Websites and Watersheds project is intended to provide a better, more current way to learn about forestry, farming, and wildlife management in Oregon using computers linked to the Internet. Websites on the Internet will provide information about natural resources in Oregon and SW Washington.
All types of information will be included such as written reports, maps, software programs,
pictures, databases, sounds, and video. Individuals, schools, and other agencies will be able to use
the website information for their own needs. Schools will be able to use the websites for their
research and teaching projects, then create their own websites that outline their projects and results.
These Internet websites will provide a valuable link among projects and their findings. Local
science projects will focus on local environments, including the fields of geography, forestry,
agriculture, water quality, fisheries, and wildlife management.
Profiles of the Five Schools Participating in the PEAS Project
All five participating schools are located in the rural Benton and Lincoln County, Oregon communities of Philomath, Eddyville, Alsea, and Siletz. Their districts span the eastern Willamette Valley and western Pacific Ocean slopes of the central Oregon Coast Range.
Philomath High School
Address: 2054 Applegate
Philomath, OR 97370
Phone: 541-929-3211
Principal: Nels Thompson
Newspaper: KIVA
Philomath High School is located in the Benton County town of Philomath, on the banks of a Marys River tributary. The school is situated near the eastern base of Marys Peak, a well-known local landmark and the highest mountain in the Oregon Coast Range.
The Philomath High School has about 570 students and employs approximately 30 teachers. The school was built in the 1950s and has had two major additions since that time.
Philomath High School has been featured in a number of news articles recently. Two of Jeff Mitchell's classes, Horticulture and Environmental Sciences, were the focus of in-depth reporting by the Corvallis Gazette-Times.
The Philomath High School Shining Stars Dance and Drill Team marched in President Clinton's inaugural parade on January 20, and were featured in numerous local and regional newspaper and television reports.
The girl's basketball team has been very successful for many years and is currently leading the ValCo League with a perfect 17-0 record (8-0 in league). The boys basketball team is doing nearly as well, currently leading the league with a 7-1 mark.
Philomath Middle School
Address: PO Box 271
Philomath, OR 97370
Phone: 541-929-3167
Principal: Larry Sleeman
Newspaper: The Guardian
Philomath Middle School is located adjacent to Philomath High School. The school has about 525 students and approximately 28 staff members.
A front page article in the January 27 Gazette-Times reported on the success of teacher Kay Glathar's efforts to assemble a computer lab over the past four years. Glathar is currently in the midst of her third term as president of the Philomath Education Association and has assembled a lab of more than 30 PC computers, with plans to add a mobile lab of 20 new laptops.
Eddyville School
Address: Eddyville School Road
Eddyville, OR 97343-0043
Phone: 541-875-2942
Principal: Robert Folker
Newspaper: The Eagle Times
Eddyville School is located in the small eastern Lincoln County community of Eddyville near the confluence of the Yaquina River and Little Elk Creek, at the foot of Baber Mountain.
Eddyville School has about 200 children. Of these, approximately 75 are in Kindergarten through 5th grade, 35 are 6th to 8th graders, and 65 are high school age. Employees include about 25 teachers and 25 support staff positions.
Built in 1924, Eddyville School has since experienced steady growth. The late 1950s high school population required additional space, and in 1961 two rooms and a Gym were added. In 1964, the high school was structurally expanded to include younger children when the elementary school was destroyed in a fire. The last additions were made in 1971 with a shop and a student services room.
The boy's football team achieved second place in the 1996-97 state champions, and are currently 4th in the state finals. The boy's basketball team is presently second in the league. Recent grants have allowed the development and growth of the school's technical center. Unique programs include the Distance Learner Program, which offers educational services through satellite programming and a Conflict Management Program designed to assist faculty to handle the concerns and needs of contemporary students.
Alsea School
Address: 301 South 3rd Street
Alsea, OR 97324
Phone: 541-487-4305
Principal: Frank Kur
Newspaper: Alsea Mountain View
Alsea School is located in the western Benton County town of Alsea, in the western foothills of Marys Peak, along the banks of the Alsea River.
Alsea School has approximately 250 students. About 90 children are in kindergarten through 5th grade, 75 children in 6th to 8th grade, and 90 are high school age. Forty-one people are currently employed at the Alsea School. Of these, 23 are teachers and 18 are support staff.
Alsea School was built in 1909. For many years, Alsea students have achieved very high scholastic scores in state-wide assessments. Alsea sports teams have also been very successful throughout the years. Their friendly rivalry with Eddyville football and basketball teams has spanned generations and formed an important social link between the two communities. This year the girl's basketball team (17-1 overall and 8-0 in league) clinched the Casco League title on January 28 with a 63-38 victory over Perrydale.
Address: 245 James Frank Ave. NW
Siletz, OR 97380
Phone: 541-444-2523
Principal: Mike Darcy
Newspaper: Warrior Report
Siletz School is located in the Lincoln County town of Siletz, near the center of a large bend in the Siletz River. A nearby landmark is Government Hill, a traditional spiritual center of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz.
Siletz School currently has about 320 children enrolled. Approximately 210 of these children are in the kindergarten through 5th grade, with the remaining 110 or so in the 6th through 8th grades. Built in the 1930s, The Siletz School encompassed all grades until about 1984, when the high school students began busing to Toledo High School.
Siletz School offers students the opportunity to learn about the cultural history of their town. The
students can attend a mini Pow Wow and participate in Indian educational activities that
include drumming, beading, and shawl making. Siletz School students and staff are currently
involved in a program called Resolving Conflict Creatively. Six teachers have been trained so far
with plans to integrate the valuable communication program into the entire student body.
The Home Page contains Internet addresses to PEAS principal contacts and the PEAS Directory Pages.
Icons provide readily available links to specific sites or pages. They are faster and easier to use than conventional text and appeal to visually oriented learners. Peabody, the current logo used by PEAS, is a good example of an icon. Throughout the course of the project, this icon will change. See our list of sponsors on page 7 for other examples of icons.
Home page directories provide links to other pages through a technology called hypertext. (See the glossary on page 5.) A collection of linked web pages form a website designed around a home page.
The school directory list provides the user with direct hyper links to the five schools participating in the PEAS project. These connections are established through each school's home page. ;Navigating to these home pages can be done by simply clicking the cursor on the underlined school of choice.
The Newsgroup link will connect to a discussion group that shares information for Website formatting, student use guidelines, software protocol, and the schools science projects.
The Top Ten List contest provides an opportunity for the entire student body at each participating school to become involved in the PEAS project. It is basically structured like the popular Top Ten List presented on the television show ;Late Night with David Letterman. The PEAS contest asks students to respond to the question ;Why is this project called the PEAS project? As an added incentive to use e-mail and visit the PEAS website, two winners from each school will receive prizes donated by PEAS sponsors. Winners will be selected on the basis of student voting via the PEAS home page, providing another opportunity for students to participate within their own five-school web network.
Like icons, buttons (usually found at the bottom of a web page) are hyper links that link to locations within the site or to external documents. The PEAS buttons are shaped like peas and connect to informational pages related to the project.
History PeaThe History pea provides visitors with a brief history of the PEAS project. This information is similar in format and content to the history included on the first page of this newsletter.
Sponsors PeaPEAS is supported by private sponsorship. The Sponsors pea provides visitors with a list of the project sponsors and supporters. This list was also included in the printed newsletter on page 7. Contributors of $1,000 or more are considered sponsors and have icon links to their websites (optional). Contributors of $100 or more are considered supporters and are also listed at this location.
Software PeaSoftware used for PEAS has been selected on the basis of its easy and available use and capabilities of being cross-platform with IBM and Macintosh systems. PEAS software includes Netscape Navigator as a web browser, JPEG View to display pictures, and Eudora to send and receive e-mail. This software can be easily obtained by new visitors by linking through the Software pea.
Links PeaThe Links pea connects to hyperlinks of websites that contain useful information for PEAS participants. For example, colleges, universities, sources of scholarship funding, information on GIS maps, and Plain English can all be easily reached through this button.
Plain English PeaThe Plain English pea connects to a New Albion Multimedia page that describes and defines applications of Plain English for Internet use.
Both the e-mail and Pagemaster links are located on the PEAS home page. Directory pages and other important locations also contain links to individual e-mail addresses. The e-mail address links visitors to a person with information about the PEAS project. The Pagemaster links with specific personnel responsible for individual projects associated with that particular page. For example, the Top Ten List will have a Pagemaster link that connects the user directly to the Top Ten contest coordinator.
PEAS Update: Schools Have Varying Levels of Internet Capability
| School | 14.4
Modems |
28.8
Modems |
Fiber
Optics |
Computers
with 8 mb |
Computers
with 16mb |
Dedicated
Lines |
| Philomath
High School |
NA1 |
NA |
Y |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Philomath
Middle School |
0 |
0 |
Y |
40 |
1 |
1 |
| Eddyville
School |
0 | 1 | N | 11 | 1 | 1 |
| Alsea
School |
NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | 1 |
| Siletz
School |
6 | 4 | N | 16 | 10 | 5 |
| Total | 10 | 5 | 2Y | 67 | 12 | 8 |
1 - Information not available at press time
This issue of the PEAS Pilot, the first, provides an excellent opportunity to summarize the meetings that have taken place with teachers, school administrators, project sponsors, and others to define the project and refine its objectives. It is also a good place to assess the relative technical capabilities of the participating schools to use Internet and integrate it with their current educational activities.
The table that accompanies this update provides a quick review of individual school Internet resources, and some insight into their abilities to link to one another via e-mail and the World Wide Web.
The table was assembled through first-hand observations and by interviewing faculty and administrators of each school. Meetings were held with interested science teachers at Philomath High School on January 3, 1997, with the Technical Committee of Siletz School on January 15, 1997, with the Alsea Site Council on January 16, 1997, and with science and media teachers at Eddyville School on January 17, 1997. In the latter three instances, representatives from NW Maps, New Albion Multimedia, and Pioneer Telephone combined presentations to describe the nature of the project, to assess current technical opportunities and limitations at each school, and to determine if additional telecommunications were needed to implement the project as described.
Key contacts were made at each school during these meetings. Tom Thompson and Jeff Mitchell spearheaded contact at Philomath High School. Mike Darcy hosted the Technology Committee meeting at Siletz School where contact was developed with Chris Beath and Bonnie Weaver. Patsy Jones and Ron Nicholson have been representing Alsea School, while superintendent Ron O'Day and school board member Rocky Sapp have also demonstrated support and interest. Bob Pearson, Walt Marchel, and Jerry Kinney attended the meeting at Eddyville and are currently cooperating to begin development of the Eddyville website. Philomath Middle School was recently added to the project. Kay Glathar and Larry Sleeth have been very helpful in providing information and direction.
A number of observations can be made regarding conditions for this project:
A large disparity exists between the participating schools in available Internet technology. This disparity can be measured in access (number of telephone lines), speed (modems vs. fiber optics), and computing power (number of computers).
Internet connections can be made between the schools using much of the existing software and computers. Minimum project standards were established and included computers with 8 mb. RAM, 14.4 modems, a dedicated phone line, Netscape version 2.0 software, and Eudora e-mail.
Cross-platform incompatibility was shown to exist within schools and between schools, providing additional communication problems. For example, Philomath Middle School has no Macs and 40 PCs, while Siletz School has 20 Macs and 6 PCs.
A prioritized list of Internet needs has been determined that includes:
1. More Internet access (more dedicated lines)
2. Faster Internet access (fiber optics, 28.8 modems)
3. More computers (16 mb. RAM minimum)
The PEAS project is entirely funded by private sponsors and donors. We need funding if we are to continue with our mission to help educate Oregon's children and citizens for the future. If you would like to help us in our efforts, please contact us by calling 766-8118, or by e-mail through our website at http://www.ORWW.org/PEAS/. Sponsors and donors responding before February 25 will be listed immediately on the PEAS website and included in our February 28 newsletter.
PEAS Staff
Mack Barrington: Website/GIS
Bob Edmond: Mapping/Graphics
Bruce Fraser: Video/Graphics
Patrick Maeder: Database/Graphics
Cynthia Phelps: Formatting/Editing
Linda Satchwell: Archive/Editing
Rod Slattum: Software/Photography
Terri Trosper: Newsletter/Office
Zongyao Wen: Internet Software
Bob Zybach: Project Leader
Coming in the February Issue...
School Home Pages
PEAS Science Projects
PEAS Progress Report
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This page was last updated on February 3, 1997
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