Objectives

The Hands-On Technology (HOT) Program is a collaborative effort between AT&T and the Colts Neck , New Jersey public school system to expand their science program and introduce new technology into their curriculum. All of the activities that follow have been tested in the public school system to insure that they are interesting and reliable for children with a range of abilities.

The goal for the HOT Program is to use inexpensive, every day materials to allow each child to perform hands-on experiments or activities in support of the established curriculum. The children learn experimental technique, measurements, and to express their findings clearly in addition to the scientific principles involved. By doing this, we increase the children's confidence in trying things out for themselves and their knowledge of how to go about it. We also increase their knowledge of, confidence in, and enthusiasm for science and technology.

The HOT Program in Colts Neck relies heavily on parent involvement. To find out how to start a HOT Program in your school, click here .

Organization Of The Program

The HOT program consists of activities in the areas of science, math, geography and computers. The science activities are further split into several units, each of which provides experiments related to a particular subject. Each unit is targeted at particular grade level and assumes students have certain math and language arts skills. In the pages that follow, you will find the student lab books which contain the actual experiments as well as places for the kids to record their hypotheses, observations and conclusions. You'll also find teacher's notes and a list of the materials necessary for each unit.

While each unit is geared toward developing knowledge of a specific topic (e.g., simple machines, weather, geology), it has four equally important aspects:

• to teach scientific practice and technique
• to reinforce related math and language arts
• to encourage the students to experiment on their own
• to provide technical information about the subject area

Development Guidelines

The specific guidelines used to develop the units are:

• The activities are experiments that the students do themselves; not demonstrations performed by the teacher for the class.
• The students must be able to read, perform and document the experiments themselves with limited adult supervision.
• Each experiment is designed such that the results are sufficiently dramatic to keep the children's attention and that there is a high probability of success.
• Use of free or inexpensive materials is necessary so that enough materials can be provided for a class of 24 on a limited budget.
• Where ever possible, commonly available objects will be used rather than scientific apparatus so that the kids understand that they can perform their own experiments at home with minimum financial investment.
• Experience has shown that the kids work best in pairs so the activities and equipment will be appropriately structured.
• Each unit consists of from 10-20 experiments so that the unit can be completed in 6-8 weeks.
• In general, each experiment will take approximately 1/2 hour including set-up and clean-up. Follow-up discussions are recommended but are not included in the 1/2 hour time estimate.
• Safety and good lab protocol will be considered and stressed throughout.