Island Trees is one of two districts in Nassau County to have jumped right into the 21st Century with their new innovative Technology Lab.

This technology lab, which was built in Island Trees Middle School over the summer, changes children's perspective on learning. This lab, built to replace one of the school's two "shop" classrooms allows students to experience everything from how electricity works to electronic communications, to robotics and automation, without ever leaving the classroom. They use their computers to stimulate ideas, answer questions, and solve problems.

In shop students traditionally built wooden projects such as race cars or key ring holders, but now, in this state-of-the-art technology lab, seventh and eighth grade students can learn how to put out a newspaper or use an alternate energy source. There are currently 14 stations in the lab which will teach students about; video production, biomedical technology, digital sound, multimedia, construction, mechanisms, alternative energy, robotics and automation, electronic communications, basic electricity, weather monitoring, graphics and animation, computer applications, and research and design. They learn about these subjects through hands-on projects that they can do on the computer.

Each of the 14 computer stations focuses on a different one of these subjects. Two students work at each station for 10 days and then the team moves to another subject. The students are in the technology lab for 10 weeks and then move on to 10 weeks in the traditional "shop" class. Students choose the five subjects that they would like to learn about and then, as they move from seventh to eighth grade, get to choose five more. Students who are interested in trying the stations that they missed have the opportunity to do that after school with the Technology Club. Students who are having difficulty in the class can also meet with one of the two teachers, Matt Pagliari or Kieran Keyser, before or after school for extra help.

The teachers are able to monitor the students' progress through the computer on their desk which links into each of the modules. They also have the capability, through the computer, of chatting with any student who they see is having some difficulty. Progress is monitored through different tasks and tests that they are led through in a manual that goes along with the module's software. Students are able to get instant feedback on their performance through the program's exercises.

The software is called ScanTEK 2000 and comes from a company called RJT Educational Training Systems, which set up the modules and trained the instructors on how to use the programs. The company offers a wide selection of programs that can be added at a later time.

The start-up cost for this technology lab, including the room renovation was approximately $100,000. This money was the one capital program laid out in this year's budget, which was approved by the tax-payers. The district hopes to eventually be able to set up a program similar to this in the high school.

Students really seem to enjoy the interactive learning experience. Comments from some seventh=graders in the technology class included; "It's awesome" and "It rocks." Another student said that the program made learning easy because it tells you step by step what to do.

According to Superintendent Richard Segerdahl the lab was finished two days before school started. In those two days the teachers had to be trained, at the school, to learn how to use the programs. Pagliari will fly to Atlanta later to be trained further at the company's US headquarters. He will also be taught how to write his own curriculum for the students. Segerdahl said the district is very happy to have teachers who are willing to bring these new technologies to the administration and board's attention and then are willing to follow through with it and invest the time necessary to incorporate it into the curriculum.

Teachers and administration are very pleased about how well the program is working. Students are visibly interested in what they are learning and are anxious to get to work on it as soon as they enter the classroom. According to Segerdahl, "We're really excited about it. It exposes students to a lot of things they wouldn't normally be exposed to." Middle School Principal Jon Segerdahl praised it as being, "Relative with respect to real careers." He said that while many of the things learned in the old style shop or industrial ed classes might not have been useful to the students in their future careers, these programs teach them something that they can use later in life.

According to Pagliari, "At Island Trees the technology department's goal is to make every student technology literate, build each student's self-esteem in a positive way, and have all students engaged in their learning." Island Trees Middle School has achieved this goal with their new state-of-the-art technology lab.