Proposal

Narrative

Students enrolled in four courses (EEC 4020 Foundations of Early Childhood Environmental Education, EEC 4237 Exploring Natural Habitats, EEC 4322 Effective Practices in ECEE, and EEC 4404 Community Engagement in ECEE) will benefit from the technology used in the course. The requested technology will support educational activities and student learning experiences while in the outdoors and in the following ways: (a) teaching experiences (e.g., students read children's e-books for content learning and practice story telling skills) (b) science and environmental education content experiences (e.g., identification of flora and fauna using Audubon app, identification of bird sounds and songs) (c) science and environmental science processes (e.g., interactive apps about earth timeline, insect life cycles and transformations, ebb and flow of intracoastal tides), and (d) learning about community resources and supports (e.g., maps of natural areas, information about native nurseries, nature centers).

Facilities

No facility renovation or upgrade will be required.

Hardware Requirements

I would like to request three Microsoft Surface 7 with the following capabilities in order to support student educational experiences while teaching in the outdoors. I am particularly looking for hardware that can store educational apps for offline use: Microsoft Surface Pro 7 VAT-00001 Intel Core i7 10th Gen 1065G7 (1.30 GHz) 16 GB LPDDR4X Memory 512 GB SSD Intel Iris Plus Graphics 12.3" Touchscreen 2736 x 1824 Detachable 2-in-1 Laptop Windows 10 Home 64-bit. The tablet is currently listed at $1,899.99 per unit on Microsoft.com (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/configure/Surface-Pro-7/8N17J0M5ZZQS?crosssellid=frequentlyboughttogetherpro7&selectedColor=86888a&preview=&previewModes=). However, it is available at NeweggBusiness.com for $1,599.99 (https://www.neweggbusiness.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIV0UUCDV3831&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleBiz&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleBiz-_-2-in-1%20Laptops-_-Microsoft-_-9SIV0UUCDV3831&source=region).

Software Requirements

No software funds are requested at this time.

Personnel Costs

There is no personnel cost associated with this request.

Other Costs

There are no other costs for this project.

Timeline

The project will start in Spring 2021 with EEC 4237 Exploring Natural Habitats. The project has no specific end date as the requested technology will be used in supporting educational activities in four courses for the foreseeable future.

Sustainability

The requested technology will be used for the foreseeable future in four different courses. I anticipate the technology will be used for at least five years in supporting the learning experiences of students.

Resource Matching

There is no specific commitment for cost matching for the technology requested at this time

Implementing Organization

I will be implementing the project through my teaching assignments. My academic unit is the College of Education and my appointment is in the Department of Curriculum, Culture, and Educational Inquiry (CCEI). No additional costs or resource restraints are anticipated.