Best Buy Award
Poplar Grove science teacher Jon Eckert has received a $2,000 Teach Award from Best Buy Co., Inc. for integrating interactive technology into his curriculum. This is the second year in a row that Mr. Eckert has been awarded this grant, enabling him to create a lab of the future for his seventh-grade students.
Eckert’s proposal is called Lab Rat Studio. This program started with a Best Buy Teach Award last year and involves students in the production of lab videos and school videos to benefit the school community and enhance the 7th grade science curriculum.
“The 14 trained student lab assistants get a great deal out of developing and creating the videos for their fellow students,” Mr. Eckert said. “Additionally, students who are absent or might not otherwise understand a lab explanation can either view the lab at home on a DVD or receive the instructions and procedures via the student videos.”
One of the students’ favorite outcomes of the video lab comes at the end of the year. “At the end of the year, every 7th grade student receives an edited DVD of all of the pictures and video taken throughout the year, which allows them to look back on the year and all of the positive learning experiences they had in 7th grade science,” Eckert said.
This year, Best Buy Teach Awards of $2,000 were given to 1,300 schools to sustain or enhance existing educational programs. An additional 50 schools were awarded $10,000 for technology-based programs they’ve successfully implemented. Since 2003, the Best Buy Teach Award Program has rewarded schools that creatively integrate interactive technology into their curricula.
“Teachers are finding creative ways to engage students by using technology hands-on; we want to support their efforts by helping them enhance or expand these programs,” said Paula Prahl, vice president, public affairs, Best Buy Co., Inc. “We know that schools are the cornerstones of these communities where our employees, customers, and their families live and work.”
For more specific information about Mr. Eckert’s interactive science classroom, feel free to email him directly at eckertjon@fssd.org, or call the school at 790-4721.
Poplar Grove is a Franklin Special School District school, serving students in grades pre-K through 8, and is located at 2959 Del Rio Pike, Franklin, Tennessee.
