Databus Issue: 2003 3 07/15/2003
Spotlight on Technology Arsonist Hunters!
Joyce Hinkson, Ed.D. ConsultantWest Campus Hiram Johnson High School
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It began with a conversation, as most of the student-driven projects do in the West Campus Hiram Johnson Environmental and Spatial Technology (EAST) Lab of Mary Ellen Thoene and Hugh Hunter. Coach Mashburn, West Campus Girls’ softball coach and City of Sacramento fire department engineer in the division of training, had voiced his concern over the problem the city was having in identifying and tracking serial arsonists. One difficulty facing the fire department was that the fire department’s technology did not allow easy viewing and limited the ability to view several areas of data at a time. Was there something the students could do to help?
Not an ordinary problem, but then this was no ordinary classroom. The students in Ms. Thoene’s and Mr. Hunter’s classroom are part of a growing group of students nationwide who are enrolled in EAST, which began in Arkansas at Greenbrier High School in 1995 with 20 at-risk students and one innovative teacher. From that first EAST class, the program has expanded and is now included in over 200 schools in seven different states. At the end of 2003, over 20,000 students will have experienced the EAST model.
Teachers, known as facilitators in the EAST program, participate in pedagogical training designed to prepare them to create information-era EAST learning centers that are collaborative and promote the intellectual development of their students. Facilitators learn strategies to guide students through the transition from intrinsic, personal projects to school and community projects that are of service to others.
Students enrolled in EAST classes represent the diversity of the school population. They work in teams and individually to tackle real-world problems in their schools and communities. Learning is student centered with the teacher acting in the role of a facilitator. The performance-based learning environment allows students to complete projects and propose solutions with the aid of very sophisticated technology and associated software applications. Students stay actively involved and motivated because the projects are driven by student interest.
This same student interest led to the Arsonist Hunters Project; a proposal to design a mapping program for the City of Sacramento Fire Department, working in collaboration with Assistant Chief Troy Malaspino and Retired Fire Department Detective Glen Dennings. The proposal included identifying and plotting all fires within the designated jurisdiction by type, origin, size and time of the fire. Time was plotted by A.M. vs. P.M. The intent of this ongoing project is to track arsonist patterns and assist in reducing the incidence of arson occurrences.
The students were able to take fire department data currently in a Microsoft Access database format and plot the data onto a visual map using ESRI ArcView and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) software. This allowed the fire department to view arsonist patterns visually, rather than in a data format. The students’ future plans are to train fire department personnel to maintain a mapping program that will visually plot arsonist patterns throughout Sacramento County. During the course of this important civic project, students not only developed technical skills in various software programs and equipment, they also gained academic and personal skills such as problem-solving, meeting facilitation, research, documentation, and oral and written communication.
West Campus Hiram Johnson High School is one of 45 sites currently in California with one or more EAST classes. EAST was made possible through a federally-funded grant opportunity administered by the California Department of Education in 2001 and again in 2002. An opportunity for funding EAST in grades four to eight was included as part of the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) Competitive Grant this fiscal year. The deadline for submitting the grant was May 14, 2003. Information on this grant as well as future technology funding opportunities through EETT is available at http://www.cde.ca.gov/edtech/eett.
Ms. Thoene wrote the EAST grant application that lead to the funding for West Campus Hiram Johnson High. The grant process and successful implementation was strongly supported by Site Principal David Hunt as well as the director of technology for the Sacramento City Unified School District, George Nicholson. Sacramento City Unified School District would like to expand the EAST program to bring the opportunity to middle school students. The district has submitted an EETT competitive grant proposal for funding consideration for this proposal.
For more information about EAST in California, please contact Rowland Baker, Western Regional Director of EAST at (916) 447-8183 or Rowland@eastproject.org. The Web site may be accessed at: http://www.cde.ca.gov/east.
