The fifth grade students at the Gibbons Elementary School were told last week by Mrs. Smith, Stoughton's Elementary Technology Trainer, that a COW would be visiting their classrooms. They had many questions about who was bringing it, would it fit in the elevator, and what were they going to do with it.

A few tech savvy students (and there are many at the Gibbons School!) decided it had to have something to do with computers. Sure enough, on Thursday morning the COW showed up in Mrs. Gitto's fifth grade classroom to the delight of the students who had been anticipating its arrival.

The COW is an acronym for Computers on Wheels and consists of 14 Macintosh laptops, iBooks, and an Airport which allows for internet access. The students eagerly awaited their first opportunity to try out the new technology. Their first task was to complete a "Space Internet Hunt." They worked in pairs on a scavenger hunt to correctly answer questions about our solar system, part of the fifth grade curriculum.

Their next activity was to become "Space Doctors," whose mission was to monitor 3 astronauts' health as they journeyed to the planet Mars. A few teams were successful in treating the astronauts' ailments along the way, while other students learned a great deal about the importance of NASA's team of highly-qualified specialists who keep track of real life astronauts who venture into outer space.

The COW will be visiting other classrooms and the students will be completing different activites directly related to Stoughton's current educational curriculum, with a little help from the COW.

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