New technology at St. Joseph, Our Lady of Lourdes

Photo courtesy of Saint Joseph schools

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Smartboards like this have been installed in classrooms at Saint Joseph and Our Lady of Lourdes schools, funded by a grant from the E.L. Wiegand Foundation.

OGDEN/SALT LAKE CITY - Math and science may come a little easier for students at Saint Joseph and Our Lady of Lourdes elementary schools, thanks to a grant from the E.L. Wiegand Foundation.

"I am very excited about the technology enhancements this grant brings to our school," said Armando Venegas, principal of Saint Joseph Elementary School. "Teachers will now be able to easily demonstrate concepts and new material in a variety of ways. We expect this new approach will benefit students by allowing teachers to present the material in an easy-to-understand interactive visual format."

The grant will provide SMART Board systems for all classrooms at both schools. SMART Boards allow teachers to project images from computers to an interactive whiteboard that can be seen by the entire class.

At St. Joseph, the grant also paid for document cameras and wireless microphone/speaker systems for 20 classrooms for grades kindergarten through eight.

At Our Lady of Lourdes, the grant was used for computers for the library and classrooms as well as a sound system for the gym, which also is used as the auditorium. This will allow school officials to show presentations for large gatherings such as parent meetings, or for movie nights, said Principal Louise Herman.

The new technology also will allow Our Lady of Lourdes to use programs they hadn't used before because of technology limitations, Herman said, adding that they're especially excited about the math applications. The new program helps teachers assess each student's math abilities, then tailors activities to help that level, she said. "So if they're in third grade but they are capable of doing fourth-grade math, then they'll be able to work on those kinds of activities in their classroom."

In St. Joseph's middle school science program, a digital microscope will be connected to the SMART Board system, Venegas said. "This will allow the teacher to project microscope specimens onto the SMART Board and save the images to her computer."

The grants were applied for at the end of the last school year and awarded in October. The technology was installed over the Christmas break.

"It's going to help us reach all of our students, not just the main body," Herman said. "It's also going to enable us to reach the students in a medium that they're used to and it will make their studies come alive and be more meaningful to them than just sitting and reading in a textbook."

The E.L. Wiegand Foundation, located in Reno, Nev., has provided a number of grants to diocesan schools over the years, said Holy Cross Sister Catherine Kamphaus, superintendent of Utah Catholic Schools. The foundation supports projects and programs in the fields of education and health.