Learn how the Academy of Finance and Enterprise has developed a learning environment that is rigorous and meets state and national standards for college preparation. Participants will be able to learn about literacy strategies, view sample products of project-based learning activities, and develop a plan to increase academic rigor.

1. Dennis Barham
Kim Davis Pathways to Technology MHS, Hartford Ct.

2. Outline
Introductions
About our school
Project Background
First Breakout
Second Breakout
Student samples
Website Project Demo
What we learned - Good News
What we learned – Improvement
Opportunities
Q & A

3. Pathways to Technology
 Grades 9 – 12
 Approximately 350 students
 All students receive technology instruction;
 Graphics, E-commerce, Web Development,
Digital Video, Sound Production,
Programming and then choose a specialty
 College Prep (96% placement rate)

4. Project Background –
Mountain Classroom
 Mountain Classroom is the project of Mr. Alan
Spier, a retired lawyer and long time
outdoorsman
 The project is a collaboration of the Hartford
Public School system, The Appalachian Mountain
Club, and the Trust for a Mountain Classroom
 Approximately 40 students travel to New
Hampshire for 4 days to study the environment –
free of charge
 The project completed it’s sixth year this Spring

5. Starting the Project –
What NOT to do
 PBL 101 ….How not to run a project (video)

6. First Breakout –
Audience Analysis
 Audience Analysis identifies the groups that
will utilize a web site
 Let’s try a simple technique to complete this
task

7. First Breakout –
Audience Analysis
 Think about www.ups.com
 What groups of people would use or visit the
UPS site?

8. First Breakout –
Audience Analysis
 Rules for Brainstorming:
1) Postpone and withhold your judgment of ideas
2) Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas
3) Quantity counts at this stage, not quality
4) Build on the ideas put forward by others
5) Every person and every idea has equal worth

9. Second Breakout –
Logo Design
 A quality web site functions, but is also
attractive and well designed
 Let’s examine the guidelines for graphics
design
 Graphics Design Guidelines

10. Second Breakout –
Logo Design
 Federal Express had several ad campaigns;
 Here are some samples Fedex Ads
 Your assignment is to sketch out a design for the Fedex
campaign “The World, on time” that recognizes the
principles of design

11. Second Breakout –
Logo Design
 The next approach is called a “gallery walk”
 Tour the room and after seeing everyone’s
work, assign one of your dots to each one:
 Blue – best
Yellow - 2nd best
Red - 3rd best
Here are some student samples

12. Student Samples
 This is a sample of a student produced
prototype of the site.
 Every student produced one of these
Web Site Prototype

13. Project Demo –
Final Website
 The actual project is presently on the
internet at http://mtnclassroomhfd.org
Production Web Site

14. What we learned –
Good News
 Problem Based Learning works!
 A project focuses on the skills acquired in Web
Design
 Student “ownership” drove the project
 Learning is facilitated by student inquiry
 Getting to work is never a problem
 Classes began with customer updates and
project pointers
 Small teams are key

15. What we learned –
Improvement
Opportunities
 Formal training lessons for all project jobs
 Weekly Rubrics for grading and feedback
 Electronic Brainstorming
 Teamwork and collaboration training

16. Can we answer any questions?