http:tides'sfasu'edu

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http//tides.sfasu.edu
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In September 2002, the Texas Tides project
began with funding from a Texas
Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund TIF
Board technology grant.
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Through TIF funding, two distinct portals to
East Texas history were created.

• A Website designed for K-12 teachers and students

• A fully searchable database of over 10,000
  primary resources

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In September 2005, the Texas Tides project was
awarded 570,288 through anInstitute of Museum
and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership
Grant in the Advancing Learning Communities
category. IMLS funding is providing for many
exciting expansions to the initial Texas Tides
project.

• http//www.imls.gov

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Making the Texas Tides Website a Useful Tool
for Teachers
The design of the K-12 Website was directed by
4th 7th grade teachers. The teachers requested
both chronological and cultural access to Texas
Tides resources.
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Needs Discovered When Writing the IMLS Grant
Proposal and During the First Year of the Project

• A Few Things Teachers Asked for
• Bilingual Tools
• TEKS Compliant Lesson Plans
• Opportunities for Teaching Enrichment Experiences
• Virtual Field Trips
• Science Resources
• Rich Cultural Content
• 20th Century Resources
• Simpler ways to use images found through digital
  projects

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New Regional CollectionsMany East Texas
museums and libraries have added portions of
their collection material to the Texas Tides
Website - many more are joining the project.
The Sterne-Hoya House Museum and Library
The Stone Fort Museum
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Adding Science to Texas Tides New Natural
History CollectionsNatural history collections
from both East Texas and Mexico are being added
to an upcoming Texas Tides sister site.
Saltillo, Coahuila -Mexico
Biology - Natural History Collections
Merida, Yucatan -Mexico
SFA Mast Arboretum
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Collection overviews are located in the
resource sectionof the Website
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Translation of Texas Tides Material
Undergraduate students from SFA and doctoral
students from TAMU are translating all Texas
Tides resources into either English or Spanish.
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The 2006-2007 Texas Tides Curriculum
Development Team (CDT) Providing for the needs
of additional TEKS Compliant Lesson Plans
Opportunities for Teaching Enrichment Experiences
Elementary School teachers attended a three day
long Texas Tides workshop to learn how to
integrate the program into their teaching. The
CDT teachers are creating lesson plans for the
project Website.
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At this time, there are 47 lesson plans available
on the Texas Tides Website (forty are TEKS
compliant Social Studies lesson plans).
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Texas Tides Virtual Field TripsWhat is a
virtual field trip?A virtual field trip is a
multimedia presentation that brings the sights
and sounds of a distant place to the learner
through a computer. Through Texas Tides virtual
field trips, visitors will have an opportunity to
experience sites and events of local interest,
around Texas, and from Mexico.
Sterne - Hoya
Millards Crossing
PNPC Summer Camp
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Virtual Field Trips - Mexico Texas Tides
Program staff are creating virtual field trips to
schools, museums, communities, and celebrations
in Mexico to help meet the needs of Texas
teachers for Mexican cultural information
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Comparing History, Comparing Cultures
1857 Letter from Henderson, TX Excerpt about
making Red dye Dissolve two ounces of pounded
cochineal in a brass kettle in a sufficient
quantity of water to cover one pound of thread.
Let the cochineal dissolve for fifteen minutes
Mix 2 oz of muriate of tin with half an ounce of
cream of tartar, added to the other mixture. The
thread should be washed clean. Put in the dye
wet and boiled thirty minutes.
Zapotec Weavers Oaxaca, Mexico (2006) Showing
a colony of cochineal and demonstrating how it is
used to make dye.
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Teachers Experiencing Mexican Culture in Mexico
Donna Bass (2nd grade science teacher TJR
elementary) visited the Yucatan. She is writing
science and social studies lesson plans based on
her trip.
The Tides program is giving teachers an
opportunity to experience what they teach, enrich
their lessons, create new curriculum, better
understand their student population, and build
student enthusiasm for learning.
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Better Access Simpler Use of MaterialThe
current researchers database gives subject
access to every item added to the Texas Tides
project. However, in an effort to better meet
the search needs of researchers, the information
in the original database is being migrated into a
new system -Contentdm.
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What the Move to the New Contentdm Database
Means for You

• You can collect images in the My favorites
  section of the database
• You can save images in a Power Point presentation
• You can save Images to a web page
• You can compare two images side by side
• We can create pre-defined searches for teachers,
  students, and other researchers
• You will easily be able to find a citation URL
• You will be able to zoom in on Images and crop
  them to best meet your particular need

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Understanding Teachers Needs

• Focus Groups
• Formal and Informal Interviews
• Surveys
• Conference Discussions
• Online Learning Community

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Help us Make Texas Tides Useful in Your Classroom
Surveys Custom surveys have been developed to
evaluate the Texas Tides Website. Surveys are
available for teachers, students, and/or General
users. Survey results are used to direct future
program development. Links to surveys are located
on the bottom section of the home page
http//tides.sfasu.edu/home.html , on the Teacher
section, and will also have a place in the
upcoming Student Resource Section.
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Info. About Online Learning Community
The Texas Tides Wiki is an online community for
the teachers, educators, faculty and community
resource members that contribute to the Texas
Tides Program.
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Texas Tides Wiki User Group
There are currently twenty-four teachers,
professors, and other educational professionals
participating and contributing to the Wiki.
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What the Students Want
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Student Focus Groups Information gathered
through student focus groups provides feedback
for the design of the upcoming Texas Tides
student resource area.
Information on students search strategies and on
how students want to interact with websites was
gathered at recent focus groups of middle, high
school, and university students.
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Student Focus Group Results
Where do students go first for information?
Google (usually the first few hits)
What do they want to find on a website?
Subject Driven Access Ease
of Use Multimedia Features
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Student Focus Group Results

• Subject Driven Access
• A subject driven access point was the preferred
  method of finding information in all the focus
  group session. Google was the most mentioned of
  search engines used. The students liked the
  ease of use and usually found what they needed on
  the first page of results.
• The concept of separation into subject areas
  like culture or lifestyles, science, history,
  etc. was very popular if an icon based menu
  portal was used.
• Ease of Use
• A web site should be easy to use at first site.
  The students were not interested in sites that
  needed explanation or tutorials. Unless they
  were compelled to use that site by a teacher they
  would look for other sources. Too much text was
  also a factor in defining ease of use. A site
  with a mix of pictures and text and links to
  other resources was favored. While some
  multimedia elements were interesting, they did
  not factor heavily into how easy a site was to
  use.
• Multimedia Features
• Video clips were popular, but length was a
  factor. Shorter, a minute or two at most, was
  the most popular. Larger ones might have
  problems with download or working on slower
  connections at home, also will lose interest
  unless very compelling. Videos were more popular
  for recreational use than educational ones.

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What you will find on the Texas Tides Website
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http//tides.sfasu.edu