Science classes at Mercy High School in northeast Baltimore are going high-tech and wireless.
The freshman biology class at Mercy has been collecting samples from their rain garden. In the classroom, that material goes on slides that the students examine under microscopes that are equipped with Wi-Fi and send a signal to the students' iPads.
'In one word: amazing, because it's more interactive, so we get to really look deeper into science,' said student Ciara Armour.
Transferring the image to the iPad allows the students to make movies, save pictures, make labels and notes and measure the size of the specimen. Teachers said it is revolutionizing science class.
'We're actually using it as a meaningful tool in the lab. They're recording what they're doing, and they're determining the size of cells firsthand. They're annotating lab reports. They can save the information and then they can incorporate them into their formal lab reports. So, it's totally changing the way in which you're going to do a lab,' said biology teacher Nancy Uryasz.
'We can take pictures and we can measure what we're looking at. We can label it, and we can draw things to help us when we're going to need it in the future,' said student Oluyinka Akinola.
School officials said they decided to use some grant money to buy the special microscopes because learning how to utilize that kind of technology will give students a leg up after high school.
'Giving students access to these microscopes really allows them to have a first-class experience with technology, allows them to develop a facility and a comfort with technology so that when they go to college, they're full of confidence. They've seen the equipment and they know what they're supposed to do, and they're really ahead of their peers,' said Mercy High School President Mary Beth Lennon.
The students said it also makes microscience more interactive and fun, and that in turn inspires them to want to learn more.
'It's sparked my interest in the science field. I'm interested in maybe teaching biology now. I would love to do this with a bunch of other kids because it's fun and interesting,' Akinola said.
The program has been so successful that the school plans to use the rest of the grant money to buy more microscopes and science technology equipment.
Entities 0 Name: Mercy High School Count: 2 1 Name: Nancy Uryasz Count: 1 2 Name: Akinola Count: 1 3 Name: Ciara Armour Count: 1 4 Name: Oluyinka Akinola Count: 1 5 Name: Mary Beth Lennon Count: 1 6 Name: Baltimore Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/Z7fGET Title: Science everywhere at Kiski Area school Description: It's easy to find students who are enthusiastic about science at the Kiski Area Upper Elementary School, but it's harder to tell what class they're talking about.
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