Students on a powerful mission

Lindsay Sandham

Fourth-graders at Lincoln Elementary School not only know how to use

Google and the Internet, but now they know how to produce their own

PowerPoint presentations.

Technology lesson instructor Christine McKinley correlates what

students are learning in their regular classes with the Newport-Mesa

Unified School District technology curriculum.

Students are studying California’s Spanish missions in their

social studies class, and McKinley is helping them make multimedia

presentations based on the mission each student selected.

“I think [the missions] are really interesting to look at, figure

out who founded them and what mission is close to where you live,”

9-year-old Caitlin Cohn of Newport Beach said Monday after working on

her PowerPoint presentation. “I think the basic history behind it is

really interesting.”

The students have not only created computer presentations about

their missions but have also built model missions that are displayed

in the classroom. The study focuses students’ attention on geographic

and economic factors, locations and functions of the missions, the

influence of Catholicism and the daily lives and conditions of the

Native Americans who occupied the missions.

McKinley helps students with all types of computer skills, from

basic typing techniques to using clip art and graphics. The students

use programs such as PowerPoint and Kid Pix 3 on iMac computers in

the technology lab.