Lewis and Clark Rediscovery Project

Golden Triangle Curriculum Cooperative Team 2

Decision Point

Date: September 24, 2000 District: GTCC Team 2

Completed by: Mark Ayers, Charlie Brown, Cindy Mapston, Jeredene Mayfield, Tammerah Robertson, Jennifer Schlepp

Contact: jmayfield@metnet.state.mt.us or medriver@3rivers.net

Abstract

The Golden Triangle Curriculum Cooperative (GTCC) is a consortium of thirty two K-12, thirteen K-8, one 9-12, and two associate North-Central Montana public school districts formed to address the curriculum, assessment and professional development needs of its member schools.

The goal of GTCC Lewis and Clark Rediscovery Team 2 is to collect and archive historical, geographical, and natural history of the Marias River.

The team’s long-term plan is to produce a CD presentation reflecting the history of the Marias River and surrounding area, which overlaps the area served by The Golden Triangle Curriculum Cooperative. This compact disc presentation will be for classroom use. The CD will be modeled after the Corps of Rediscovery CD provided by the Lewis and Clark Project itself. A grade appropriate curriculum will be created to complement the CD.

The team will devote this year 2000-2001 to setting up a model of data collection consistent for each site. Additionally, communication between group members, school district members, and local experts will be explored to supplement the data collected.

An online data collection survey will be designed to reflect the outcomes of the six original sites. Arc View maps will be designed with hot links to each district member’s historical information. “Inspiration” software will provide a working backbone for organization. Hardware and Software acquired through the Rediscovery Project will be used extensively. Long-term plan will expand from the original 6 sites to include all 48 districts of the Golden Triangle Curriculum Cooperative.

Video conferencing will provide a means to bring team members representing the over the 35,000 square mile cooperative. To this date, distance and scheduling difficulties have been prohibitive for face-to-face meetings. Video conferencing is an economical means to bring together team members and others from all across the GTTC. Our group of six is exploring real time communications programs (software and hardware) that will maximize multi-station conferencing.

Our group will provide in-service programs to GTTC member districts through a program called the GTCC Summer Institutes. Team members will also be available to in-service individual member schools or teachers during the school year.