Project Code Name: Duck Soup

Teacher's Worksheet

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The use of backgrounds will give your students:

  • the opportunity to be creative.

  • the opportunity to design a homepage which distinctively represents them.

  • If you have a scanner system, the students can design backgrounds using their own art work. This will allow the students to mix several curricular disciplines into one project.

  • Another possibility would be to assign teams which could design webpages on a scientific topic or history report. Divide the teams so that you distribute the artistic talent, the language arts talent, and the computer skills talents somewhat evenly. This is an example of how the concept of cooperative learning is actually practiced in industrial situations.

You will need the following:

  • A computer paint program or a scanner.

  • A bitmap converter.

  • Step 1

    Have the students open a computer drawing/painting program. Examples of such programs are:

    • McDraw or Claris Works on the Macintosh.

      or

    • MsPaint on an IBM compatble.

  • Step 2

    Have the students design the background for the project. An Escher-type background project is included on one of the student worksheets.

  • Step 3

    When the students have finished with thier designs, draw them into a discussion of the design and whether it will work. Ask the students:

    • What text and fonts will be used on the page?

    • Will the background design enhance the information on the page?

    If feasible send the students back to the drawing board with a sense of accomplishment and at the same time a challenge to consider the entire page layout.

  • Step 4

    After negotiation between themselves the students will reach a stage of commitment to their design. Have the students use a

    • gif

      or

    • jpeg

    converter to create appropriate graphics files for their webpage. Examples of such converters are:

    • GIFConverter for the Macintosh

    • L-View for IBM Compatibles.

    Information about these two products can be found at: Both L-view and Gif Converter are shareware and low cost, some versions of L-view are free. Ask at the site for more information.
  • Step 5

    If you have a conversion program such as L-view or GIFConverter then simply

    • "Open" your bitmap using the pulldown "File" menu.

    • Use the "Save As" option in the "File" menu and name as
      • *.jpg

        or

      • *.gif

    where the asterisk represents the name of your choice. It should now be ready to use as an image source or a background source. Make sure that you move the In-line image file to the same directory as the HTML document which uses it as a source in the IMG tag.

    Provide access to the Student Worksheet.