Background

PARTNERSHIPS:

Balloon-atics is representative of

1) ...the teaching-learning processes used throughout Parkway Central Middle School (PCMS), a Professional Development School partnered with UM-St. Louis's College of Education.

and

2) ...the use of educational technology fostered by the E. Desmond Lee Technology Learning Center (TLC), a hot-house of ideas and resources within the College of Education. (314-415-4800        Dr. Carl Hoagland, Director                       

YOU CAN DO THIS !!

1) The teaching material for the Parkway Central Middle School (PCMS) course on balloons is open to everyone on the Internet. To go to the material, use the following address: www.umsl.edu/~sahambr/BalloonSite.htm

2) Teacher Judy Green is the principal author of the Balloon-atics interdisciplinary unit for Middle School students. Judy, her 8th grade math students, and Tony Ambrose produced the CD and Web versions of Balloon-atics.

3) Teacher Tony Ambrose is a staff and program developer at Parkway Middle. He also works for University of Missouri-St. Louis, College of Education, where his website is located.

4) The course work by the Parkway Middle kids also is available on CD-ROM disc. That way, teachers who want to teach the same sort of course have a complete record. Anyone interested in getting the CD-ROM can e-mail Ambrose at: sahambr@jinx.umsl.edu )

The Balloon-atics unit is interdisciplinary in nature. Building tissue paper hot air hot air balloons integrates several curricular areas including mathematics, science, language arts, and social studies. Students will use cooperative learning techniques and will develop problem solving stratagies to improve and enhance their skills.

During this unit the students will:
* Work in small and large groups
* Investigate topics related to ballooning
* Build and launch a tissue paper hot air balloon
* Incorporate vocabulary dealing with aeronautics and hot air ballooning
* Study the science of balloon flights
* Evaluate work done by themselves and peers

Prepared by Parkway Central Middle School, Team 8-2

See  where a lot of HOT AIR  can take you