![[Intel Navigation Header]](../../../../pix/header.gif){kind=small}
Intel Corporation has launched a national education program designed to increase technology literacy among students and inspire them to learn more about the science behind computer technology. "The Journey Inside" technology education program is aimed specifically at grades five through nine when a students' interest in science, math and related studies can really take hold.
Our free comprehensive classroom kit, The Journey Inside: The Computer, comes in a package that is a learning tool itself -- the box serves as a model of a personal computer for students to open up and examine. The kit contains a teacher's guide, video, poster, and hands-on chip kit.
The 300-page teacher's guide includes background information, lesson plans, student materials, overheads and vocabulary for six units which are divided into beginning, intermediate and advanced levels. The units cover the basic operations of computers and microprocessors, digital information, transistors, chip manufacturing and a review of critical inventions throughout history.
The six-module video introduces the concepts of each study unit with a typical twelve-year-old on a quest to learn more about computers. The poster reinforces key concepts from the video.
To complete the experiments described in the teacher's guide, the chip kit includes an actual silicon wafer, a non-working packaged microprocessor, loose processor chips, transistors, diodes, connecting wires and batteries for hands-on study.
The raw material for the program was developed by a collaborative of nine science teachers under the direction of Penny Moore, U.C. Berkeley, director of Prime Science and Science for Science Teachers. The materials have been refined for classroom use by the International Society for Technology in Education, who also conducts training classes for teachers in the effective use of the kit.
To amplify the technical concepts presented in the film, Intel created four museum-quality exhibits for the theater lobbies. These describe the major functional areas of a microprocessor, the layering process by which chips are made, the clean room environment where chips are made and the basic operations of a personal computer.
Teachers scheduling field trips to the film will receive a 20-page Teacher's Activity Guide with pre-film discussion points and vocabulary, and a series of post-film activities that review key concepts from the film. The film is scheduled to appear at several IMAX theaters worldwide, or contact your local IMAX theater for future availability.