Summer 2003: Washington, D.C.

Lewis & Clark Rediscovery Teams Report
to Congress and the Executive Branch

In a manner similar to that of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark 200 years ago, teams of educators presented examples of how to boost student achievement at a congressional luncheon on July 10, 2003. It was a chance for senators and representatives to receive briefings on student success.

When the Corps of Discovery was launched in 1803 with a $2,500 congressional appropriation, the captains returned three years later with the bad news that they could not find a Northwest Passage. However, they did bring back incredible stories about more than 50 tribes, 300 species of plants and animals unknown to science and awesome geography.

Thanks to funding from the Technology Innovation Challenge Grant program, 17 school districts with Rediscovery project sites, stretching along the Lewis & Clark Trail from West Virginia to the coast of Oregon, brought good news to Washington DC about how their students are making “discoveries” and learning breakthroughs in every school subject and every grade level.

“ If Lewis and Clark had tools like GPS units, maybe their journey through the Bitterroots would have been easier,” said Senator Mike Crapo from Idaho. “Keeping electronic journals on a hand-held computer would have been a whole lot easier than quill pens.” He went on to say that this was why our schools need access to the latest tools to help students learn and apply incredible amounts of information.

Senator Larry Craig, also from Idaho, observed, “What you are doing now in your classrooms was science fiction in my time.” Representatives from each Rediscovery project site present at the luncheon showed examples of what schools have accomplished and how other teachers are learning to use technology to raise student achievement. Idaho’s Potlatch School District serves as fiscal agent for the nationwide project aimed at professional teacher development.

The Institute for Mathematics, Interactive Technologies and Science (IMITS) at the University of Idaho, Moscow designed, developed and facilitates workshops, online courses, recommends and provides training in new technologies, as well as providing technical support and administrative services.

The teachers’ real purpose in the project, however, is to integrate new technologies so their school keeps making adequate yearly progress in meeting student learning standards. Jennifer Schlepp, a teacher from Conrad, Montana, summed up the project’s unwritten slogan for students: “Learn to use, and use to learn. ”

K-12 Rediscovery teachers in the 17 schools are now passing their skills and enthusiasm on to hundreds of other teachers in a ripple-like training model. Online courses coordinated by the University of Idaho IMITS team are providing backup tutoring and practice in various technology tools (GIS, GPS, digital cameras and imaging and concept mapping software) and applications (such as CorpsQuests, ways of using the Internet to access worldwide learning resources).

Rediscovery coordinators also met with U.S. Department of Education officials in Washington last fall for a mid-term project review. Federal panel members praised Rediscovery’s CD (to obtain a copy, email Megan at cerps@hotmail.com). The project was also commended for training models that have speeded technology implementation in classrooms and the organizational management structure in place that has adequately facilitated the initial stages of the grant.