Dow Educational Enhancement Grant Provides Technology for the Classroom

Louisiana - December 05, 2005

Margaret Tucker, a fourth grade teacher at Cohn Elementary in Port Allen, was one of 11 teachers awarded a Dow Educational Enhancement School Grant this year. The grant of $2000 allowed her to purchase a current technology-teaching device called an Elmo Visual Presenter.

The visual presenter provides assistance in classroom instruction for fourth grade students including special education students. This interactive teaching tool allows the teacher to take advantage of modern teaching styles. The Elmo is a video capturing system that presents a clear image of objects ranging from opaque material to three dimensional objects. Tucker purchased it to replace her old and outdated overhead projector that had been used for many years.

The Elmo provides students with many new skills such as analyzing data, perceiving patterns, exploring characteristics, and communicating thoughts. It allows teachers to more actively involve students in their learning and incorporate visual models in their lessons.

“The Elmo generates a springboard for classroom discussion as well as provide students with the skills necessary to become productive learners,” Tucker said.

Before the purchase of her Elmo, Tucker would spend valuable time before and after school copying important information into transparencies to present to the class. Her new visual presenter now allows her to project a non-transparent copy on a television screen for the entire class to see.

Before Thanksgiving, Tucker prepared a lesson for her students concerning the importance of corn during the first Thanksgiving. Her fourth grade class learned the components of a kernel of corn by using the Elmo to present a real kernel and a diagram of a dissected one. She also stressed the importance of corn in our lives today by presenting modern uses of corn such as corn starch and oil using the Elmo.

This visual presenter assists teachers in measuring, assembling or dissecting a variety of objects to the students without causing a disruption. This simple, yet powerful device allows teachers to explain and present things only once with the entire class watching from their chairs.

“It allows the classroom to be more versatile in how I present the material to the children,” said Tucker. “The Elmo will give our students the opportunity to see the big picture of learning.”

The Elmo will be shared between 15 other classrooms at Cohn Elementary allowing the reach of this piece of current technology to be wide spread. Tucker expressed that the visual presenter will continue to be utilized within the school in the future.

	Margaret Tucker of Cohn Elementary uses her Elmo Visual Presenter to show her fourth grade students a diagram of a dissected kernel of corn during her thanksgiving lesson. She received a $2000 grant from Dow Louisiana Operations to purchase this current-technology teaching device.

For Editorial Information:

Gary Cambre
The Dow Chemical Company
(225) 353-8265