The Great Bean Race was developed by Betsy Monfort and Joelyn Hilton, teachers at Keller Elementary School in Mesa, Arizona. Joelyn has taught many grades in the middle and elementary school levels, and has been a technology teacher for two years. Betsy taught special education until she became a technology teacher. Both Betsy and Joelyn are master teachers in the Intel® Teach Program.

Collaboration
Joelyn and Betsy collaborated frequently for several years in support of the students they shared at Keller Elementary. They decided to do the Intel® Teach Program training and develop The Great Bean Race together. These teachers brought different interests and abilities to bear when working on the project-- Joelyn was the primary writer, and developed the unit plan. Betsy developed the technology angle, and produced the Web site, publication and multimedia materials. Both agree that collaborative planning enriches their teaching, and makes their professional life more rewarding.

Developing a Technology-Enhanced Unit
The teachers developed The Great Bean Race from a lesson plan in a third-grade science textbook. They expanded the plan so the activities were more meaningful, and the products more fun for students to make. Joelyn says, “Science is fun, technology is fun, and students do great things when they’re having fun. Technology allowed things to happen with this unit that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.” In the project, kids used spreadsheets to record and display plant growth data, they kept electronic science logs, corresponded with competing classes by e-mail, and sent each other digital photos of their bean plants as they grew. Finally, students presented what they learned in multimedia slideshows and newsletters or brochures.

Betsy and Joelyn used strategies in The Great Bean Race that they recommend to other teachers. They suggest dividing activities in the curriculum so students work on different parts of a class project. Instead of broad coverage that results in more superficial learning, students are given narrower but deeper learning tasks. At the conclusion of the project, students present their learning, and essentially teach one another through the presentation medium they selected. For a newsletter, each small group of students might contribute a separate article that reports on one aspect of the class project. In a class slideshow, groups or individuals might contribute a single slide to demonstrate their part of the project.

Meeting the Needs of Students
Joelyn says her students are motivated when they help plan their learning. “Anytime there’s ownership of a project, whether technology is involved or not, students are more engaged. In this century, kids are so into video games and TV, they’re pretty excited to be presenting what they’re used to consuming—it’s pictorial, and multisensory, and it allows kids to display what they know with more confidence. What they might produce in a short traditional report gets expanded when they get to develop it using the computer.”

Most project work is done in pairs or small groups. The teachers recognize the value of kids getting ideas from each other. Evaluation and revision happen naturally along the way when kids work together. Joelyn commented, “reports seem to have a lot more detail when they are done by a group of students.”

Betsy and Joelyn had a common interest in making the project successful for all their students. “Using technology is a natural adaptation for kids with learning problems,” said Betsy, “These kids don’t have such vast disadvantage when they use technology— they are motivated, and they engage in multisensory activities that help them compensate for their reading and writing problems. A student with learning disabilities could participate in The Great Bean Race with only minor accommodations.”

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