Hotel School's donation of 22 computers assists math students at IHS

By Casey Morse '00

With the Cornell School of Hotel Administration's recent donation of 22 Macintosh 6100 computers to Ithaca High School's math department, students at the high school will be getting an enhanced educational experience.

The idea for the donation was hatched when Marge Ferguson, the Hotel School's assistant dean for business administration, attended her daughter's open house earlier this fall at Ithaca High School and came across a flyer requesting donations of computers for the high school.

"Because the Hotel School had gradually been shifting away from Macs and toward PCs, [the Hotel School] offered to donate 22 of its surplus Macs to the high school," said Shari Avery, director of information technologies for the Hotel School.

The 22 Mac computers have been set up as work stations in four math classrooms at the high school. Eight will be used by teacher Steve Weissberg with his Geometry II honors classes, five by Kevin McMahon with his Course 2 Regents students, four by Liz Morse with her local level Math B geometry classes, and five by Lianne Thompson with her local level Math A algebra classes.

"Computers in the classroom makes the material more dynamic for the students," said Weissberg who, with computer programming teacher Tom Mariano, got the Macs up and running. "The math becomes a family of shapes and gives the students a better understanding of the material."

According to Weissberg, Geometor's Sketch Pad, one of the new software programs that recently has been installed on the new computers, will help students better visualize what they are learning.

"Instead of struggling with compasses, students can simply enter an angle into the computer, and the computer will draw the angle and allow the students to make shapes such as isosceles triangles right on the computer," he said.

Haralyn Kuckes, chair of the Ithaca High School math department, said the most important thing about the new computers is that they will allow students who ordinarily would not have the opportunity to explore mathematical concepts on a computer to do so.

"We're very happy that Cornell was able to donate so many computers," Kuckes said.