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RE : too quick to use computers, I had a wonderful opposite experience recently in my library. We are in a brand new school, brand new library - and student computers have not yet arrived. I decided, as part of our opening celebration, to run a contest: "What Mrs. Burstein did on her summer vacation." Since we had visited the Eisenhower Locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway, I posted a picture of one of the big lake ships going through the lock, and also mentioned that the Robert Moses Park in Massena, right near the lock was on the 45th parallel. My question was : What is special about the 45th parallel? Without the www, the students who discovered the contest (I did not announce it over the loudspeaker, but figured I would "save" it for my regular patrons) hit almanacs, encyclopedias, dictionaries, books reference and otherwise, and finally, the globe. I did not give any hints except to tell them to find all of the meanings of the world parallel, since they were guessing that the answer was that it was parallel to the St. Lawrence Seaway. They also had to get by red herrings such as the fact that there is more than one Robert Moses State Park in NY State. Finally, by eye-balling the globe, 3 of the students who were sort of working together, found the answer - it is halfway between the north pole and the equator. I just wish that I had my video camera going while they were searching. It was such a pleasure to watch them figure it out on their own instead of letting google do it for them. -- Susan Burstein Portland Middle School 95 High Street Portland, CT 06480 portlandms@comcast.net -------------------------------------------------------------------- All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL 3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation. LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/ EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://elann.biglist.com/el-announce/ LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html --------------------------------------------------------------------