Springtime at Table Mound: Second Graders Explain How Flowers Grow

Preparing the Garden for Flutterbys!

Short Video Clip by Gary Olsen
April 2003

hile at Table Mound Elementary School teaching an in-service class on sound recording to a group of educators, Gary Olsen noticed a bunch of students milling about in the often celebrated Table Mound Elementary Butterfly Garden. TAG facilitator, Cyndi Nelson explained, "They're planting seeds for the Butterfly Garden. It might be a photo opportunity." "Better yet," Gary responded, "I brought the video camera."

You didn't think all this gorgeous garden and array of colorful flowers just come up by themselves do you? It takes a lot of students (yes, and teachers and volunteers) to make this garden happen, and there are butterflies from as far away as the Yucatan Peninsula, Costa Rica, and who-knows-where that look forward to this destination in our little corner of heaven called, Dubuque, Iowa.

The movie is just a few minutes long, but it is like a spring tonic. Nothing like a child to capture the spirit of the task of gardening.

The turtle downloads a complete movie, no streaming. This is best for telephone modems. After saving this file, you can play it with RealPlayer. The rabbit button is a streaming movie. If you have high-speed web access such as DSL, it will begin playing immediately. The rocket button is for high-speed networks (like our schools have), DSL, and cable modems. It's the largest size streaming movie file with full-stereo audio. Further instructions are below on how to play video and audio files that appear on our website.

Instructions For Those Outside of Our School Network (The General Public)

We are now providing a choice of RealPlayer applications for you to download and install on your computer to enable you to view the video and audio files. One is RealPlayer8 and the other is RealOne Player, which is an excellent player with many new features. It's easy to install, so just follow the on-screen steps. You will be required to register with Real.com, but these are free software applications (there are versions you can pay for if you choose, but they are not necessary for basic viewing and listening).

Which Player is Best for Me?

Of the two types of free players available, RealPlayer 8 is the traditional player that is free and will work beautifully to access Web based multimedia files from our site. There is also a new player available, which is also free, called RealONE. Either player will probably work for your operating system. If your system is older (Windows 95, NT), however, you may want to use the RealPlayer 8 software. If you are running a newer, faster system like Windows 98, ME, XP, or 2000, go for the RealOne player.

Macintosh Owners:

You can get a RealPlayer for Macintosh, Visit Real.com to download their free player options. Remember, look for the FREE players. They are sometimes difficult to find on their Web site.

Oh, and one more thing... sometimes when you click on a sound or video file in our Web site with the RealPlayer installed, you get a little commercial window that pops up on your desktop. It's annoying, but a small price to pay for the privilege of having the free RealPlayer on your system. Just click it off, and it will disappear.

Instructions For Machines on our School Network (Teachers and Staff)

We are recommending (and IT is supporting) RealPlayer8. This is for ALL computers on our network (in all school and administration buildings throughout the District). This includes all Windows 2000 machines. Click here to get the free player from our network server. If you do not have administrative priveleges, please call your building media specialist to help you.