[Zope] Zope in schools

[Tim Wilson]

On Wed, 28 Jul 1999, Kevin Dangoor wrote:

> The Zope Portal Toolkit will be really useful for
> this, methinks.

I agree. I've viewed the demo, and it looks great! I'm especially
interested the possibility of have user logins. That would allow students
to see a science dept. site tailored to the course(s) in which they're
enrolled.

> As much as possible, everything should be
> collaborative. The students should be able to submit
> things for the main page and possibly have areas where
> they can put their own things.

I've been thinking about taking an entire semester with one of my 9th
grade courses and creating a complete, multimedia Web site devoted to the
atom. It seems like Zope could do this.

> What kinds of things?
> 
> - Science-related news (your own custom science
> weblog)
> - Links to cool, relevant websites (eg
> http://www.howstuffworks.com)
> - Results from group experiments
> - Photos, etc. from previous classes

I like all of these ideas.

In addition, I've been planning to create an announcements listserv for
interested students and parents, put our curriculum materials online, and
provide course calendars. I'd like to make it possible for each teacher to
create a "What we did in class today" page that students who missed class
can check. This should be easy in Zope judging by what I've seen so far.

Is it possible to create a space for each student on the server where
students can submit homework electronically?

> You can also put up some tools for helping the
> students calculate things that might be useful in
> their experiments.

I like this too. As I learn Python, I try to make all of my programs
applicable to science calculations and such. For example, one of my first
ones was for calculating the resistance of a resistor based on its colored
bands. My next one will be calculating the molecular weight of a compound
based on its formula (e.g., Al2(SO4)3).

Thanks for the suggestions. I'd love to hear more.

-Tim

--
Timothy D. Wilson			"A little song, a little dance,
University of MN, chem. dept.		a little seltzer down your 
wilson@chem.umn.edu			pants."   -Chuckles the Clown
Phone: (612) 625-9828                       as eulogized by Ted Baxter