MOUSE Highlights: IS 49 Berta Dreyfus

zongjuan — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:24:25 +0000

I recently had the opportunity to visit our MOUSE Squad of the Year. This squad has 4 students 1 girl, and 3 boys. They meet everyday during lunch for 45 minutes to work and then every Friday they take a couple of hours for squad meetings, and Mr. Valia, the faculty advisor, rewards the students with pizza.
The students manage 4 computers labs throughout the school and their responsibilities include re-imaging laptops, hardware troubleshooting, hardware replacement, software troubleshooting, smartboard set-up, and and setting up projectors. In addition to all of the great work this Squad performs on-site, they also reach out to other schools in their community and offer their professional and technical support services to faculty and administrators at local schools. They've dubbed their service "MOUSE Mobile Solutions" and pitch themselves as a low cost alternative for out of warranty machines. Sandra Barnes a principal from P.S. 57 had this to say about the IS 49 MOUSE Squad ”Kudos to the Mouse Squad and Mr. Valia of IS 49. They successfully repaired my out of warranty laptop and saved our school $400.00. I am so grateful to the youngsters who have applied their technology knowledge to repair and revive my laptop that I thought would have been irreplaceable. Thank you so much. ”

Learn more about Mobile Soultions by IS 49.

The IS 49 MOUSE Squad produced this video highlighting why they won the MOUSE Squad of the Year Award.

MOUSE Squad Vlog: We Won MOUSE Squad of the Year! from Matthew Valia on Vimeo.

If your school is working on an interesting project or would like to please leave a comment about what your doing or would ike do.

MOUSE Squad Fieldtrip to the Moon! APPLY NOW!

meredith — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:55:41 +0000

On Wednesday, March 12th, 50 MOUSE Squad middle school students will attend our first-ever Fieldtrip to the Moon, hosted by the American Museum of Natural History!

WHEN: Wednesday, March 12th

WHERE: Rose Center for Earth and Space in the American Museum of Natural History on 81st Street at Central Park West, NYC. MOUSE will not provide private transportation, the museum is near the subway and several bus lines.

WHO: Fieldtrips are for middle school MOUSE Squads only. (Much like our advanced MOUSE Corps program is only for high schools!) Space is limited for this trip, you must first fill out the application (below) to find out if your school can attend - we can only provide tickets for 1 adult chaperone per school, and 10 MOUSE Squad students per school.

APPLY: Applications are due Wednesday, January 30th. Download the Application here. Email this application to Meredith@mouse.org, or fax it ATTN: Meredith, MOUSE to 212.226.5619. We will announce which schools have been accepted by February 6th. We require that each student who attends this trip actively participates in MOUSE Squad: they must have an account on www.mousesquad.org and they must have at least started the process of becoming a certified MOUSE Squad technician.

SCHEDULE:

10AM	Schools must arrive before 10AM.
10:30 - 11AM	Fieldtrip to the Moon Take a virtual trip to the Moon in the immersive Hayden Planetarium. Feel the ground shake beneath you as you experience a thrilling NASA rocket launch. Guided by a live presenter, you will orbit the Earth and get an astronaut's view of a sunrise in space. Field Trip to the Moon is a virtual journey created using NASA engineering models and scientific data. Like NASA's astronauts, you will come face-to-face with the challenges and excitement of traveling through space to land on the Moon. Along the way, you'll discover some of the differences between the Earth and the Moon and what makes our planet unique and habitable.
11AM - 12PM	Guided Tour of the Rose Center for Earth and Space
12 - 12:45PM	Lunch in the Museum Cafeteria: MOUSE provides students with $10 lunch vouchers.
1 - 1:30PM	Cosmic Collisions Developed in collaboration with and programmatic support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Cosmic Collisions will expand students' concepts and knowledge of the Earth, the Solar System, the Milky Way Galaxy, and the Universe and introduce current findings in astrophysics.
The rest of the fieldtrip’s schedule is optional and will not be guided by MOUSE – if you are required to be back at your school by a certain time, you may choose not to stay for these events. But each ticket includes the IMAX show ticket (worth $16), so if you can get permission to stay for the entire school day, we recommend it!!
1:30 - 2:30PM	OPTIONAL: Unguided Full Museum Access - teachers will be required to chaperone their students during this time.
2:30 - 3:30PM	OPTIONAL: IMAX SHOW: Dinosaurs Alive! Dinosaurs Alive! is a stunning large-format film, narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Michael Douglas. The film follows Museum paleontologists Mike Novacek and Mark Norell and an inspired team of dedicated young graduate students as they hunt for dinosaur remains in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia and at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. Together they uncover evidence that the descendents of dinosaurs still walk (or fly) among us.

MIDDLE SCHOOL

MOUSE Highlights: IS 49 Berta Dreyfus

MOUSE Squad Fieldtrip to the Moon! APPLY NOW!