A team of students called GeoBear Trackers work from early October to June maintaining an AppleWorks database and computer map using 3-D Atlas 98 to document GeoBears journeys. Invitation Students travel the world vicariously as they follow the journeys of stuffed animals who are helped along by human traveling companions, most of them strangers. GeoBears lead students along paths to fascinating places, paths which are spontaneously chosen as GeoBears are handed from one traveler to another. The GeoBear Project brings the world into the classroom in unpredictable and exciting ways revealing the diversity of the natural and cultural worlds and demonstrating how very small the world is becoming. Uses grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositions.
Students practice responsible use of technology systems, information, and software.
Situations Most work is done in the classroom which is equipped with traditional classroom resources as well as three computers and a scanner. Occasional GeoBear contacts lead students out of the classroom to distant sites. More often GeoBear contacts result in visits to the classroom by people GeoBears have met. Final project work is done in the classroom, the school s media center, and in students homes. In September students prepare GeoBears for launch.