Samsung Series 7 Slate PC Helps High-Schoolers Learn 21st-Century Science Skills

overview

Customer NeedIntroductory biology textbooks at Geary County Schools were five years old. Rather than buying costly new print textbooks, administrators at the Kansas school district decided to go digital — creating a “FlexBook” that would provide more personalized, engaging content and help meet next-generation science standards. But with the digital textbook developed, they needed a 1:1 computing device that would maximize the potential of the interactive content as well as the array of probeware the district had invested in.

Samsung SolutionThe Samsung Series 7 Slate PC provides Geary the power of a notebook PC combined with the mobility and engaging, touchscreen experience of a tablet. Students can access the FlexBook and its embedded multimedia resources as well as connect innovative science lab equipment, such as digital microscopes and digitized probes, that measure everything from blood pressure to pH levels in soil samples. The slates are, in effect, powerful mobile science centers right in the students’ hands.

ResultsBeginning in the 2012-13 academic year, 250 Samsung Series 7 Slate PCs were rolled out in science classrooms at Geary’s Junction City High School. Their use quickly grew beyond the original introductory biology class to other science courses. Teachers report the slates have led to more engaged classrooms, and improved communication and collaboration, with students relishing the access to advanced scientific research tools. The implementa-tion of the FlexBook has also helped students learn in new, more self-directed, active and rigorous ways.

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Samsung recommends Windows® 7.

Samsung’s Series 7 Slate PC with Vernier’s LabQuest 2 and Stainless Steel Temperature Probes.

Geary County Schools (unified School district #475) in Junction City, Kansas, serves around 8,000 students, including about 1,700 at Junction City High School (JCHS). according to the school district, about 70 percent of its students have a connection with the nearby Fort Riley military base (they may have family that work there that aren’t in the military), 63 percent have a direct military connection and seven of the schools are actually located on the base. approximately half of all students qualify for free and reduced lunches.

The district’s science department has for several years placed a strong emphasis on technology as part of its philosophy of students becoming active participants in scientific learning, rather than passive recipients of pre-set content.

Geary began using probeware in its science program in 2006 to provide students the ability to conduct more sophisticated lab and field work. The district is in a semi-rural area, near nature sites, such as the Konza Prairie Biological Station, featuring streams and ponds — ideal for outdoor data collection.

“We really think the more we allow students to ‘do’ science, the more they are likely to learn and enjoy their science classes — that’s half the battle with high-schoolers,” said andrew Ising, science department chair and biology teacher at Geary.

In late 2011, Geary’s introductory biology textbooks were five years old and the department faced an important decision — either purchase new textbooks or embark on another, future-oriented path. director of Secondary education Carol arjona met with the biology teachers and asked them to “think differently” in order to identify an approach that would help them shift to next-generation science standards.

over several months, the district developed a plan to move away from its traditional print textbook to a digital textbook that would be more flexible, customizable with local content, easily updated and usable for self-paced student learning. Such a resource would help to meet upcoming Common Core State Standards by allowing students to use multimedia and other tools to communicate scientific information and to become more than just passive consumers of textbook content.

“It’s a different way of learning,” said arjona. “I told the teachers if they went with me on that journey, I’d figure out some way to get tablets for them.”

Rather than purchasing licenses to an existing digital textbook, Geary’s biology teachers chose to adapt science “FlexBook” mate-rials offered by the CK-12 Foundation, a nonprofit group that provides open-source STeM content.

But with this digital content strategy in place, the district knew it would need a computing device that could maximize the potential of the FlexBook in class each day. The biology teachers wanted a touchscreen tablet device that would engage a generation of students who grew up in the smartphone era, but also needed the processing power to run advanced science applications and support for the full Microsoft office Suite when creating reports.

other device considerations included compatibility with the district’s wide array of Vernier probeware and Ken-a-Vision digital microscopes, and the need to be mobile so that students could use the devices for outdoor field research.

THe CuSToMeR

THe CuSToMeR Need

Geary County Schools

To shift from print textbooks to digital content and tools

Samsung Case Study: Geary County Schools uSd 475 samsung.com/education2

JCHS students view their microscope samples on a slate.

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THe SaMSuNG SoLuTIoN

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Quick Profile: SaMSuNG SeRIeS 7 SLaTeas used by Geary County Schools

oPerATiNG SYSTeM: Genuine Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)

ProCeSSor: Intel® Core™ i5-2467M

DiSPLAY: 11.6-inch LCd (Hd 1366 x 768)

HArD Drive: 64GB /128GB SSd (mSaTa)1

CAMerA: Front – Low-Light 2.0MP Hd; Rear – 3.0MP Hd

PorTS: uSB 2.0, u-HdMI, docking Station Connector

Samsung’s Latest offering:SaMSuNG aTIV SMaRT PC PRo 700T

oPerATiNG SYSTeM: Windows 8 (64-bit)

ProCeSSor: Intel® Core™ i5-3317u

DiSPLAY: 11.6-inch Led LCd (Full Hd 1920 x 1080)

BriGHTNeSS: 400 nits Super-Bright™ Plus

ToUCHSCreeN: 10-finger multi-touch with S Pen™ technology

HArD Drive: 128GB SSd1

MeMorY (STANDArD/MAX): 4GB / 4GB ddR32

CAMerA: Front –2.0MP Hd; Rear – 5.0MP Hd

SPeAKer: 1.6W Stereo Speaker (0.8W x 2)

PorTS: uSB 3.0, Micro HdMI, docking Station Connector

CoNNeCTiviTY: Wireless LaN (802.11 a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0 HS, Widi

SeCUriTY: TPM

DiMeNSioNS: 11.6 x 7.2 x 0.5 inches

weiGHT: 1.89 lbs

Samsung Series 7 Slate PC

ultimately, Geary decided the Samsung Series 7 Slate PC was the computing device that would best meet its needs. In June 2012, the district was awarded a $2 million department of defense (dod) education activity Grant, and as part of this funding purchased the slates to outfit its biology students.

The slates, which run Windows 7 Professional, provide students with the power and functionality of a notebook PC, combined with the engaging, touchscreen experience of a tablet. In combination with the FlexBook and Geary’s array of probeware, the slates give students a powerful integrated tool for science research and learning.

Since the slates are powered by an Intel® Core™ i5 processor and have WiFi connectivity, students can easily connect to the class FlexBook, create and share graphs from data they’ve collected, and use multimedia tools such as high-resolution cameras to take still pictures and videos. The slates’ uSB ports and Bluetooth connectivity also allow students to quickly connect digital micro-scopes and probeware.

With both rear- and front-facing cameras, the slates enable videoconferences that connect students to their counterparts in other schools in the state and nationwide. The students have used their slates to participate in a video chat with noted science textbook author Carl Zimmer, asking him questions about e. Coli, superbugs, antibiotics and other topics.

The slates’ 11.6-inch Hd screens also allow students a vastly clearer view of what they are seeing in their digital microscopes. When students are asked to count the fast-moving microorganisms in their samples, they can simply take a screen capture, making the counting easier by freezing the targets in place.

“The microscopes are easier to use when they are connected to the slate,” explained Geary Biology Teacher dan Sell. “Instead of hunched over a microscope with one eye through an eyepiece, the students are looking at a computer screen right in front of them.”

The district uses the slates together with a variety of probeware to enhance project-based learning, said Ising. For example, digital blood pressure cuffs, heart-rate monitors and other sensors are used to study human body systems. Students also use sensors that test soil and stream quality — measuring temperature, pH, gas concentration and other factors. once the information is gathered, students create graphs and charts to analyze their findings.

The slates also better enable teachers to differentiate instruction. Ising can accommodate students with individualized education plans (IePs) by highlighting key text in the FlexBook for them to focus on. He also uses Google translation software to translate text to meet the needs of english Language Learners (in one 35-student class, Ising noted, students speak nine languages).

The students enjoy using the slates, explained Ising, because “they realize they’re not the boring old computers they are used to.”

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HoW To deVeLoP youR oWN dIGITaL TexTBooK

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JCHS students use their slates to learn outside the classroom.

Start with existing, Free ContentGeary teachers adapted an open-source biology textbook from CK12.org, a free service started in 2007 by Stanford university professors to provide textbook resources in STeM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields that were aligned to state standards. “The CK12.org FlexBook allowed us to create our own book,” said arjona.

Localize and Customize the Content Ising said he replaced all the “California-centric” pictures in the original CK-12 biology text with photos that looked more like home to his Kansas-based students. He also included videos, such as those from Khan academy and other instructional videos he found online, plus videos created by students with their slates.

Update often; Keep information Current With a digital textbook or “FlexBook,” you are no longer bound by a publish-er’s timetable. you can add new science news, new content that aligns with the Common Core standards, a lab exercise one of your teachers devel-oped or an interesting video your students made — and within a matter of seconds, this information is in your book and available to your students. “We can change it year to year or day to day,” said Ising. “as soon as we publish it, students go to the link and the new version of the book.”

Share internally Geary used Sharepoint software to create a password-protected, internal network for sharing the FlexBook among teachers and students.

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JCHS students use their slates in a science class.

JCHS students use their slates during a class lesson.

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a screen capture from JCHS’s biology FlexBook.

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1 Accessible capacity varies; MB = 1 million bytes; GB = 1 billion bytes; TB = 1 trillion bytes. Please note that a portion of the hard drive is reserved for system recovery, operating system and preloaded content software.

2 Total amount of available memory may be less based on configuration.

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Since the deployment of the Samsung Series 7 Slates, Sell said his students have become better communicators. They are more excited and engaged by having a professional tool like the slate available to them on a 1:1 basis. “They have every-thing right in there in front of them and there’s a lot more depth to what they can do,” said Sell.

Both students and teachers are transitioning to a next-generation learning style in which students are more active participants in their learning and teachers are more of a guide.

Students too often “have been trained to learn things in a very linear fashion,” said Ising, expecting spoon-fed content. “I don’t like to teach that way because that’s not what science is when you get out of the classroom.”

at Geary, students are required to create more content themselves, and to develop their own questions and experiments. Ising uses slates daily with students not only in his introductory biology class, but also in classes in microbiology, environmental sci-ence and field biology. For his freshman and sophomore students, the slates are a way to interact with the FlexBook, such as by recording videos of themselves explaining concepts. For upper-level courses with juniors and seniors, said Ising, “the slates are used much more as scientific research tools.”

When weather permits, students take their slates out into the field to examine water and soil quality or microscopic life in ponds. When they can’t gather samples this way, they still perform experiments, such as test-ing the growth of yeast in beakers.

“We try to ‘do biology’ or ‘do science,’ not just read about it or look at it,” said Sell. “The slate allows this because it’s very flexible. We’re not tied to what’s in the book.”

Geary administrators are hoping to expand the use of slate PCs to other courses in coming years and to develop additional Flex-Books for other subject areas, said Carol arjona. She also would like to see the slates used with the district’s 3-d printer; biology students would design models on the slates and then create these models in real life using 3-d fabrication. another possibility being explored is having high-schoolers use the slates to create video tutorials in biology for elementary students in the district.

Sell noted that the use of digital microscopes “is how science is done in laboratories now.” This means that Geary students will be better prepared for college and careers in biology or related science fields, because they will be familiar with the tools used by today’s professionals.

“If we get technology in students’ hands now,” said Sell, “we are preparing them for the future, instead of them being behind and trying to catch up.”

THe ReSuLTSLearning 21st-century science skills in a more active, engaged and collaborative way

“We try to ‘do biology’ or ‘do science,’ not just read about it or look at it. The slate allows this because it’s very flexible. We’re not tied to what’s in the book.”

– dan Sell, Biology Teacher, Geary County Schools