SMART Announces New Applications, Lesson Activities and Resources for Enhancing Math, Science and Literary Instruction
Classroom-ready content to help teachers improve student achievement
Calgary, AB – June 23, 2004 – SMART Technologies Inc. announces a wealth of new content for enhancing instruction in math, science and literacy for K–12. The company has developed new software, lesson activities and Notebook™ software collections for SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards and Sympodium™ interactive lecterns to provide math, science and literacy teachers with classroom-ready resources to engage students and improve outcomes. Each resource has been designed to help teachers and students take advantage of the touch sensitivity and interactivity provided by SMART Board interactive whiteboards.
Number Cruncher software from SMART is a tool for teaching K–6 math and includes exercises on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with whole and decimal numbers. Teachers can adjust the level of difficulty, depending on the grade they are teaching. An exercise offered by Number Cruncher software presents a series of equations that students can solve by writing the answer on the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. Speller software, also developed by SMART, creates hands-on lesson activities that use digital flashcards and sound effects to help students develop vocabulary and improve spelling skills. A picture or sound prompts students to spell a particular word. Students can either write the word on the SMART Board interactive whiteboard or use their finger to move letters from the alphabet set provided on the display. They can also request hints about the correct spelling. This new version of Speller software comes with expanded word lists and helps teachers import their own spelling lists, making it possible to use the software to teach unit-specific spelling. A new text-to-speech feature automatically converts the words teachers add to speech. Both Number Cruncher and Speller software give visual and audio cues when an answer is correct.
Number Cruncher software and the new version of Speller software, developed by SMART for use on SMART Board interactive whiteboards, will be available at the start of the 2004/2005 school year as free downloads from EDCompass™, SMART’s online community for educators (www.edcompass.smarttech.com). They join the suite of free applications available to teachers along with SMART Board software, which includes SMART Ideas® concept-mapping software and Finale® Notepad® music notation software.
Hundreds of new lesson activities for math, science and literacy have also been developed. These include a Notebook software lesson activity on moon phases for grades 7–9 and a SMART Ideas concept-mapping software activity on Shakespearean tragedy for grades 10–12. An additional resource includes collections of page templates and related images that teachers can use with SMART Board software as they build their lessons in the classroom. A math collection for grades 7–9, for instance, provides graphs, grids and axes that can be incorporated into a math lesson developed in Notebook software. Teachers simply touch the template or picture they want to use and move it onto the Notebook software page. During the lesson, semitransparent tools can be moved over objects on the page to take measurements. Science and technology collections for grades 10–12 and animal collections for grades K–6 are also among the new collections. These lesson activities and collections are available from EDCompass.
"SMART is always working on providing teachers with new resources to help them improve student engagement and learning," says Cindy Kicielinski, instructional technology specialist at Jennings School District in Jennings, Missouri. "The EDCompass website, for instance, is a first-rate teacher resource that's constantly evolving, and you have to keep checking back there to see what's new. I especially like the extensive collection of Notebook lesson activities and interactive software applications like Speller."
"SMART is committed to equipping educators with the teaching tools they need to enhance curriculum through the use of SMART products in the classroom," says Nancy Knowlton, president and co-CEO of SMART. "SMART is focusing on developing a rich variety of content for teachers in math, science and literacy in order to help them improve student knowledge and achievement in these key areas. In addition to resources developed by our teachers on staff, educators can access a wealth of teacher-recommended Web resources for these subject areas through EDCompass."
About EDCompass
EDCompass programs and resources are available to all educators who use SMART Board interactive whiteboards, Sympodium interactive lecterns and SMART Ideas software. Updated and expanded on an ongoing basis, resources include the following:
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Lesson activities developed in Notebook software and SMART Ideas concept-mapping software. |
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Software resources, such as Notebook collections, to extend the use of SMART Board interactive whiteboards in the classroom. |
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Free educational software, such as Abacus for teaching K-6 math, Speller for developing vocabulary and Finale® Notepad® for composing music. |
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Web resources that are teacher-recommended and organized by grade, subject and curriculum area. Direct links to relevant websites for primary, secondary, post-secondary, special interest and professional content. |
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Research studies that validate the impact of interactive whiteboards on improving student outcomes and increasing classroom participation. |
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An online bulletin board where teachers can share ideas, experiences and technical questions. This resource is reviewed every day by the SMART support team, so questions about the use of the applications and technical queries are quickly answered. |
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How To instructions to help teachers use SMART products, integrate peripherals, write grant applications, evaluate technology and use the Internet. |
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Tips and Tricks to make the best use of hardware and software from SMART. |
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For more information, please contact:
Public Relations
SMART Technologies Inc.
300, 1207 - 11th Avenue SW
Calgary, AB CANADA T3C 0M5
Phone +1.403.802.3337 Fax +1.403.228.2500
pr@smarttech.com
Please note that SMART is written in all capital letters.