Have you though of using a package like Adobe Exchange to turn your
document into Adobe Acrobat reader format? Primary documents can be
scanned in and the entire package can then be printed out by the
teacher. You could then make the photocopying their responsibility,
which also prevents the entire packet being printed while only one
lesson is used. You could distribute your packets either on CD-Rom, or
via a website.

Amy Petersen

Jeannine Finton wrote:
>
> Please forgive cross postings.
>
> I've been working with a museum to develop a new, hands-on field trip for
> middle and high school students. We know that the audience for the trip could
> be Social Studies or Family Studies or Technology Education classes. Early
> work with focus groups indicated that teachers for these grades wanted a
> curriculum guide to go along with the field trip, with a variety of
> multi-disciplinary lessons cross referenced to state and local educational
> objectives, so that they could better justify taking the trip. In addition,
> they wanted all the student worksheets ready for photocopying.
>
> The guide contains 14 lessons. We don't expect any one teacher to do all the
> lessons. We have indicated 3 basic lessons that we recommend all classes do
> in advance of the trip. From there, the individual teacher is free to select
> supporting lessons relevant to their particular focus. We worked with a
> teacher advisory group throughout the entire process.
>
> We've completed the guide and now are faced with a dilemma. Because it does
> contain primary source images and documents, all the student worksheets and
> educational objectives, each lesson averages about 7 pages in length. The
> total guide is around 50 double-sided pages. The cost of photocopying and
> mailing the guide would be around $5 per copy.  While the cost might
> eventually get built into the program fees, in the short term that is a
> significant expense. Some museum staff are also concerned that an
> unsuspecting teacher would receive the guide and panic before realizing that
> they don't have to do the entire packet.
>
> The suggestion was made that in contacting the teacher in advance of the
> trip, one of the museum educator's could discuss the teacher's educational
> objectives and then select the lessons that the museum educator felt met
> those objectives. This would reduce the size of the mailed packet and the
> mailing expenses. On the other hand, some of the museum educator's believe
> that the school teacher could select the lessons better and might do more
> lessons once they had a chance to see how fun and exciting the lessons are.
> And once the museum educator's time in discussing the lessons is factored in,
> the net cost is probably the same as mailing the complete packet.
>
> Another idea was to mail the entire packet, but ask teacher's to return it.
> They could photocopy any lessons they wanted to and the museum would only
> have to reproduce a limited number of the guides. The potential is that
> teachers won't do it and the museum will have the expense of continually
> reproducing the guides. One suggestion might be to give them a $5 refund if
> they return the guide.
>
> Does anyone out there have experience in one system or the other?
>
> Jeannine Finton
> Education Consultant
>
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If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).