Program helps pupils learn Maine history

Looking to create a Maine studies program for middle-school pupils, Frank Callanan and Jessica Kelly wanted their laptop computer lessons to be fun as well as challenging.

So the former teachers who work for the Center for Educational Services in Auburn began researching tried and true methods of keeping seventh- and eighth-graders entertained.

“We filled the room with GameBoys,” said Callanan, referring to the popular handheld video game. “And we looked at Monopoly, Clue and Parcheesi. We wanted to come up with something that would be fun for students and manageable for teachers.”

The result is DiscoverME, an interactive Web-based tool that enables students to explore the state’s history and geography, natural, economic and industrial resources, and cultural and ethnic heritage.

Navigating the site at their own pace, students take on the role of history detectives, investigating exhibits such as maps, paintings, letters and bills of sale that “represent authentic clues to the personal side of history,” said Callanan.

Students move about on a “game board” based on a county map of the state, gathering information and taking notes so they can write a “case report.” They earn points by solving cases and answering multiple-choice questions as part of a “Detective Academy.”

During a pilot that ended last week, 35 school systems across the state experimented with the program, which will be available free of charge to all schools beginning next March.

Orono seventh-graders, whose school helped try out the laptop lesson, said they gained new insight into Maine’s history as they solved case after case.

Kelsey Johnson liked the new program because “it covers a lot more social studies and historical events than a book.”

“It’s really fun and it gives lots of information about the state we live in,” said Aileen Coe. “I didn’t know we had so many famous people in Maine.”

Also as part of the laptop program, students interview adults about their religious and ethnic backgrounds and the traditions with which they were raised. Later, the computer program enables interviews to be exchanged so students from different counties can “compare and contrast specific themes,” Callanan said.

DiscoverME produces results that can be measured against the state’s Learning Results program because it asks young detectives to focus on broad topics such as movement, adaptation, nationalism, imperialism, interdependence, evolution, cooperation and conflict. The state’s academic standards stipulate that social studies students be able to “demonstrate their understanding of enduring themes in Maine history.”

There are plenty of online encyclopedias and atlases, but until now there haven’t been many Maine studies materials for teachers, Callanan said.

The site was created with a federal grant of around $200,000 and help from teachers and experts, including some from the Maine Historical Society and Maine State Archives in Augusta, the Franco American Heritage Center in Lewiston, and the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor.

Although this is the Center for Educational Services’ first project for students, the independent, nonprofit organization has a 20-year history of supporting technology use in schools. Among other things, it introduced e-mail for educators, offered the first master’s degree in education technology, and sponsors a statewide teacher network designed to support the use of technology to achieve Learning Results.

Last week in teacher Debra Bishop’s seventh-grade social studies class at Orono Middle School, Kip Palmer said he especially liked the Case of the Trees, focusing on the Aroostook War, which began with a dispute over lumber between Maine and Canada.

“I solved that one quickly, but the cases get harder,” he said.

Greta Landis was intrigued by the Case of Civil War. “I didn’t know how specifically Maine was involved,” she said, pointing out that the 1st Maine Cavalry fought in more than 50 battles.

“You learn a lot,” said Chelsey Douglass, who especially liked the Case of Fearsome Foreigners, which provided information about the Ku Klux Klan and the clashing of different religious traditions in the state.

“It had interesting exhibits,” agreed Joel Riemersma, recalling the pictures of a burning cross and a KKK parade.

Bishop said pupils enjoyed the “gamelike format.”

Even pupils who “are often reluctant workers were engaged and focused,” the teacher said.

Another boon is that the program allows teachers to monitor students and send them messages as they work, providing feedback, making suggestions and giving encouragement, she said.

Orono Middle School wasn’t the only pilot school to be enthusiastic about the program. Feedback received through an e-mail survey has been overwhelmingly positive, according to the creators.

“I really think kids appreciate the game [because it] makes them more confident in their ability to make choices, and it’s more motivating for the typical seventh- and eighth-grader,” said co-creator Jessica Kelly.

Schools seeking information may log on to www.discoverme.org.