An article for SCIOS magazine

SCIENCE TEXT MATERIAL FOR THE NEW UNITS

With the introduction of the unit curriculum and units with a structure covering a range of previous topics there is a need for text material which is not fulfilled by any available resources.

DEVELOPMENT:

Armadale Senior High School science staff have used the old red, green and blue science textbooks as the basis for word processed text material for the new units.

A combination of student, staff and paid typist labour transformed the written page to the floppy disk, albeit pre moon walk, plate tectonics and metrication.

The resulting material was on a Microbee computer in a WordStar file containing errors in spelling, typing and contents. Because the science department of Armadale Senior High School runs computing in the school we were able to appropriate a number of Microbees and printers at the end of the year and edit the material.

However, this material was in pre-units topics. Staff members responded by identifying the material appropriate for each unit which was then collated in a single unit file on disk by those computer oriented science teachers.

An advantageous off-shoot of this activity was the transformation of several previous computer illiterates into knowledgeable novices.

Further editing was then required on the Microbee and after the file had been transferred to the Apple Mac or Nimrod, more editing again.

The units for first term 1988 were not completed until the beginning of the school year and since then a total of sixteen units have been prepared.

CONTENTS:

For each of the prepared units we have at least the relevant material from the old red, green and blue books. Some units have had extra material added where necessary and this is one of the ongoing tasks for the rest of the units.

The material includes references to pictures which are photocopied separately and stuck on the previous page by the students.

Units available are: 8311, 8312, 8321, 8322, 8331, 8332, 8333, 8334, 8335, 8341, 8342, 8343, 8351, 8352, 8361, 8362.

PRODUCTION:

Printing the texts is carried out on a photocopier purchased at the beginning of the school year expressly for this purpose by the science department. A bonus here has been the resultant immediate access to a new, sophisticated copier for all our requirements. By purchasing a government tender machine both the initial outlay and the maintenance costs were minimized.

We are providing copies of the material prepared so far to schools for a bargain basement price of $60. We even supply the disks.

As the material is improved upgrades will be offered at a nominal price to schools which have already purchased it.

Formats catered for are Macwrite, Wordstar on either the Microbee or Nimrod, and First Choice on the Nimrod.

ADVANTAGES:

Your students can be supplied with text material relevant to your locality, which is particularly appropriate for such units as 8312, 8332, 8334, 8335, and 8351.

The production cost is approximately half that of the commercial texts which consequently results in increased funds for your department (this includes paying off a photocopier).

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