Walker County Schools - WCSDnet - Science & Technology Center

The Science and Technology Center provides a variety of resources and services to the school district.

The building serves as a central meeting-place for the district and also is home to the Coordinator of Technology, Information Services and Science Education. Also at the Science and Technology Center are the district's Technology and Student Information support staff.

Walker County Schools/NASA Lunar Observatory

On Friday, November 9, 2007, the Walker County Science and Technology Center in cooperation with NASA held a "first-light ceremony" for the new Walker County Observatory. You can visit the Walker County Schools/NASA Lunar Observatory page for live viewing of images when the observatory is online.

For information about the NASA Lunar Observatory, click here or visit the link in the menu to the right.

Planetarium Update

Progress continues to be made on the new Walker County Planetarium! Within a few more weeks, there is great likelihood that the housing for the planetarium structure will be complete. Completion of Phase 1 of the project will allow us to move into Phase 2, which entails the actual construction of the planetarium dome, as well as the installation of the star projector, console, seating, special effects projectors, sound system, cove lighting, and more. Phase 3 will include the development of planetarium programs, teacher training, and moving live and recorded still and video images from the Walker County Observatory into the Planetarium facility. This is such an Exciting Time for the Walker County Science and Technology Center and the Walker County School District, as a whole!

Many Walker County citizens will remember that from 1967-1998, tens of thousands of visitors participated in programs at the former Walker County School Planetarium that was located in Rock Spring, Georgia. The first Walker County Planetarium contained a star projector, 32 seats and control console under a 24' diameter dome. The new planetarium will be located in Chickamauga, Georgia at the former Pond Springs School/Alternative Education site and will have a 40' diameter dome and 90-100 seats.

Planetarium programs for specific grade levels, targeting astronomy, space science and earth science Georgia Performance curriculum standards, will be developed as a part of the new Planetarium project. When the planetarium becomes fully operational, special programs for church groups, civic groups, etc. will also be provided on a regular basis. Most programs are anticipated to be 40-50 minutes in length.

Images from the NASA/Walker County Lunar Observatory, which became operational during the 2007-2008 school year, will provide high-quality images of astronomical objects such as the moon, planets, comets and nebulae for viewing in the planetarium facility and adjoining lobby area.

Technology Update

During the 2008-2009 school year, a significant number of computers and peripherals have been added in the Walker County School District. This has enabled the student to computer ratio to improve at every school location! A special focus on upgrading technology has occurred this year at Fairyland Elementary School, LaFayette High School and Ridgeland High School.

All schools and central services sites in the Walker County School District (WCSD) have high-speed, content filtered, Internet connections for students, teachers, support-staff and administrators. We are hopeful that through the WCSD E-Rate 471 applications for 2009-2010, Internet-connectivity bandwidth levels will be able to be increased to between 5mbps and 10mbps per school site. By upgrading to these levels, all schools will have seen an increase of 3X to 7X in Internet-access speed during the past three years. It is hoped that bandwidth to the Internet will also see an approximate 5X increase for the 2009-2010 school year, going from it’s current size of 21.6mbps to 100mbps. A replacement of switches, uninterrupted power supplies, fileservers, etc. is also planned for the 2009-2010 school year.

Over 2300 Technology Requests have been completed by Technology Specialists during the current school year. Of the 2426 Technology Requests submitted by teachers and administrators at 19 WCSD sites, over 96 % have been completed.

The automated SchoolCast Notification System is currently being used by all Walker County Schools to enhance communication between teachers, administrators, students and parents.

At the S&T Center, we are currently working with our Full-Time Equivalency (FTE) Reporting Count 3. FTE Counts 1 and 3 during an academic year are used by the Georgia Department of Education to help determine how much state funding is provided to our school district. Sign-off on FTE Count 3 is Monday, March 23, 2009.

Check out the Bugmobile...

Visit the Downloads section to download a video about the Bugmobile , our mobile science laboratory and classroom. (Warning: suggested only for high-speed Internet connections, as this is a large file)

While You're Here...

The EcoConnections project is designed to develop web-based teaching modules for elementary, middle and high school students with a focus on character education, by linking social responsibility with environmental issues. Through the project, a model for Internet-based curriculum developmenttraining will emerge. All materials created through the Eco-Connections project will be freely-shared with teachers and administrators around the globe, with hope that the world will be a better place for children because of our collaborative efforts.