East Central Region

On Tuesday March 11 elementary and high school students from Northwood, ND will interact in a live videoconference with students in Greensburg Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Oklahoma when they discuss the impact of a major natural disaster on their small Midwestern towns. The purpose of the event is to bring students together to discuss their experiences and share similarities and differences in the recovery efforts in each town. Classes from participating states will communicate in real time through interactive videoconferencing available at their school. In addition, the live videoconference will be streamed live and also recorded for later viewing. Both will be available on the Internet by visiting the website http://www.more.net/services/videostreaming/events.html

Northwood students were invited to participate in this event because of the similarities in their experience with the tornado that hit their town in August to those of the students in Greensburg, Kansas whose town was also devastated by tornadoes in May of 2007. Both towns are similar in size and characteristics; both are located in rural areas in the Midwest. In addition to the interactive sessions between both elementary and high school classes, students and teachers will have the opportunity to learn about project-based curriculum resources on topics related to emergency preparedness and natural disasters.

In North Dakota, K12 classes are invited to view the live web stream during Tuesday’s events or the recorded events at a later time.

The event is coordinated by the Kansas Association for Interactive Distance Education and state education networks, KanREN and KAN-ED. Northwood’s participation is made possible through the school’s interactive videoconference system and it’s connection to STAGEnet, North Dakota’s broadband network for education and government. Technical support and event coordination is provided by EduTech and the Information Technology Department (ITD) of North Dakota. For more information about the event, contact EduTech at 1-800-804-8550 or visit EduTech’s website at www.edutech.nodak.edu

JASON Project Stream will feature the Storm Chaser and National Geographic Emerging Explorer Tim Samaras. You can learn more about him by registering (for free) at www.jason.org and checking out Mission 3 or look at his web site at http://thunderchase.com/ See below for time of live stream on JASON.

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Emergency Preparedness Events
Tuesday, March 11, 2008

8: 45 a.m. – 9:45 .am. CST Northwood grades 3-6 participate in live videoconference with sites in partner states (*Live event to be streamed over the Internet - see instructions on EduTech’s website to view)

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon CST JASON project most appropriate for Grades 4-8 ( *Live event to be streamed over the Internet – see instructions on EduTech’s website to view)

1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. CST Northwood grades 7-12 participate in live videoconference with sites in partner states (*Live event to be streamed over the Internet - see instructions on EduTech’s website to view)