Technology Takes Trombly 4th-Graders Up Mount Kilimanjaro

Fourth-graders at learned about the five ecosystems of Mount Kilimanjaro today and used SMART Board technology to complete an assignment in conjunction with a local doctor's climb up the mountain. 

Teacher Susan Howey asked her class to pull out their writing journals and pencils. Then she scrolled through the five ecosystems—bushland, rain forest, moorland, alpine desert and arctic—on the SMART Board in her classroom.

The students recorded the elevation of each ecosystem. Then they lined up to travel to the computer lab. 

The students had to match up each one of the five ecosystems the doctor will encounter as he climbs to the appropriate level on the mountain and enter information about the elevations of each. They also were asked to complete information about rainfall in the five ecosystems.

"The use of the technology (in the classroom) really helps," Howey said. "If we were only able to share it in the lab, it would be restrictive to the class learning."

is in the middle of his climb up Mount Kilimanjaro. His climb began Tuesday and he is to continue through Sunday, when he will descend. The doctor is asking people to donate $1 for every foot he climbs during the hike to help the Grosse Pointe Foundation for Public Education raise money for technology for students. 

Howey is putting the technology her classroom already has to use by incorporating the doctor's climb. Earlier in the morning, Howey taught about weather and the time, asking students to calculate the difference between Grosse Pointe and Mount Kilimanjaro. 

"I think this makes it easier for them to see this is a real place," she said, while scrolling through the doctor's blog on the foundation's website. 

The class also looked at pictures of each ecosystem, discussing the vegetation and how it decreases with elevation.

After lab time, the students reviewed Chavey's location on the mountain. Chavey is carrying a YellowBrick, a GPS tracking device that plots his location on a map, updating every two hours. The students can watch his progress. 

Chavey is also blogging and tweeting about his experience. Students are encouraged to ask questions and interact with him during his climb. 

The climb is the result of a challenge by the John A. and Marlene L. Boll Foundation to the Grosse Pointe Foundation for Public Education. The family foundation offered to match $2 for every $1 raised by the public education foundation specifically for technology in the schools. 

The education foundation was challenged to raise $250,000, making the total possible fundraising effort $750,000. 

The Bolls' daughter, Kristine Mestadaugh, attended Howey's class Tuesday. She said the most exciting part about this particular donation for her family is seeing the results. 

Her father, she said, has been tracking the doctor's progress up the mountain and has enjoyed seeing the donation "come to life."