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District Information

Keyport School District

County: Monmouth
Partnering District: Red Bank
Award Amount: $124,303.00

School: Keyport Central Elementary School
Non-public School: St. Joseph

Project Director: Mrs. Terry Pilitzer
335 Broad Street
Keyport, NJ 07735
(732) 264-0194
terry_pilitzer@keyportschools.org

Superintendent: Dr. John S. Dumford, Superintendent
(732) 264-2840

Project Description

Through the Matrix Grant, The Keyport School District and Red Bank Borough Public Schools have agreed to work collaboratively to increase student achievement in mathematics in grades six and seven by providing classroom teachers ongoing professional development and in-class support that focuses on infusion of technology into the math curriculum and instruction.

Year one of this Grant will provide teachers, in grades six and seven, with the professional development activities necessary to complete a Geocaching project. This project will introduce the use of Palm Pilots, Global Positioning (GPS) units, digital web-based atlases, handheld compasses, and Geoboards into the math curriculum.

Through professional development activities and on-going classroom support, teachers will be able to provide technology based instruction so that students will learn, hands-on, the use of GPS units for mapping, identifying waypoints, and directions. Through the use of Geoboards students will be able to visualize the concepts of squares, rectangles, triangles and polygons. They will explore line segments, areas, and perimeters. Additionally, students will identify and locate specific points using compass directions. The Palm Zire handheld will allow students to input data, store information, and keep logs on the field. Students will be required to use math and communication skills to complete an authentic-learning collaborative project involving higher order thinking skills known as Geocaching. Students in each district set up caches, hiding places for concealing and preserving treasures. The ultimate goal is for the students to reveal the partnering school's treasure. Geocaching relies heavily on such mathematical skills as proportions, coordinate graphing and algebraic methods. Through the use of a digital web-based atlas and a handheld compass, students will understand the concept of direction.

Technology Used

• Palm Pilots
• Global Positioning (GPS) units
• Digital web-based atlases
• Handheld compasses
• Geoboards