GOOGLE Expeditions visits DALE ST SCHOOL

GALLERY of PHOTOS: Students at Dale Street School "exploring" the world through Google Expeditions.

Debby Fromen, K-5 Technology Specialist, brought GOOGLE EXPEDITIONS to the students and staff at Dale Street School and they were glad she did!

In her words, "I was so excited to share these [Google Expedition] virtual field trips with Dale Street students and staff."

When I stopped by, the two classes that were experiencing this technology were Bethany Sager's (Out of Syria) and Samantha Hacker's (Ocean Safari). I watched as the children held the cardboard box to their eyes and found that by looking up, down and turning their head 360 degrees gave them a different look! They were in awe of what they were seeing.

Fromen explained that in late September Google announced that Google Expeditions would be visiting schools. She applied right away to bring the program to Dale Street School. But Google wasn't visiting Massachusetts yet. She continued to show interest and in December she received another email, but Google still wasn't visiting this area. Then on Feb 22, Google announced that Expeditions would be available locally. Luckily she was able to confirm the March 10th date for Google Expeditions to come to Medfield's Dale Street School . "Wow did dates filled up quickly!", she said. Google asked for a minimum of 18 classes participate and that was perfect for Dale Street School, because it meant that every student would have this virtual field trip experience!

Fromen thanked Principal, Steve Grenham for his support, but Grenham was quick to thank Debby Fromen for spearheading this project and her perseverance in making it happen at Dale Street School.

"What a great experience for our students today!" said Fromen, and she continued, " They were able to experience coral reefs, rain forests, the moon, mars and the mars rover, Washington DC, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, Syria, Brazil, India, and more! Teachers selected topics that complemented classroom lessons. Some fourth graders looked for animals in the rain forest and discussed animal adaptations. Some fifth graders visited the moon, learning about the US race to the moon and talking about future space exploration. Another favorite expedition was to an underwater environment to see ocean animals and coral reefs up close. One student remarked "I can breathe underwater!"

More about Google Expeditions can be found here: https://www.google.com/edu/expeditions/

Google Associate, Fitzsimon Ogbo brought Google Expeditions to Dale Street School and he arrived in a Google Expeditions vehicle! He has been traveling up and down the east coast since September to bring Google Expeditions to many schools. Recently he has been in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and soon to be in Vermont and New Hampshire. She has also added, "He is a nice young man, who loves to "solve math problems for fun".

Mr. Ogbo explained that Google Expedition is in beta testing and that was part of what he was doing today. He was seeing how well it worked, what the problems were, and listening to suggestions for making it better. He explained that the beta testing is to make the final product better and to told everyone to look for the free app to be released sometime later this summer!

"That's when schools could plan to integrate into the curriculum", said Fromen.

Google Expeditions also visited Medfield High School on March 8th. Both Neal Sonnenberg, Instructional Technology Specialist and Debby Fromen, K-5 Technology Specialist applied and luckily both schools were selected.