The older students wrote scripts, recorded video, designed a movie, and edited it. The younger students interacted with their math problems, answering questions with a swipe of their fingertips across the glossy screen.

The teachers? They engaged students in a way that simply was not possible even five years ago.

Eight Wareham Public Schools classrooms took part in a grant-funded Apple iPad pilot program this school year that integrated the tablet computers into daily coursework. The goal was to see whether the addition of the technology would help students with varying learning styles better grasp concepts and, in turn, increase student performance.

On Wednesday, May 9, students and teachers told the School Committee how they saw the technlogy impact learning.

"I believe that iPads help students learn," Minot Forest Elementary fourth-grader Sohrob Nyman told the School Committee. "On [software application] 'Show Me,' our teacher gives us math problems and we use our fingers to write or draw the answers."

Textbooks and other print resources are available on the iPads, and software applications complement the students' coursework and the school's curriculum.

Teri DeFelippo, the district's Coordinator of Technlogy, said teachers had told her that the iPad is "able to motivate reluctant readers" because students are excited to read on the tablet.

Minot Forest fourth-grade teacher Robin Hennigan echoed that sentiment.

"In my classroom, students who are reluctant readers because they're struggling ... those students will pick up an iPad ... and sit and read," she said.

Fourth-grader Jasmine Black told the School Committee about some of the ways she uses the iPad.

"We can use them for [English], for example," she said. "If part of a class is doing a play you can write the script in notes."

John Wilson, who teaches an advanced placement English and composition class at the high school, said the iPads have invoked curiosity in his students.

"When a student is curious, they'll teach themselves," Wilson noted. "As a tool, it provides a lot of avenues that students can explore."

Wilson uses applications that allow the students to collaborate on schoolwork virtually.

"It gives the students an avenue of teaching each other instead of having to listen to me all the time," he said.

Cody Stahmer, a junior in Wilson's class, said the iPad makes class more fun.

"We're all tech savvy and we like to use technology," he noted, adding that the technology makes it easy to get questions answered. "If you don't know something you can go on the iPad right there and look it up."

Because the district is just testing the iPad program, students were not able to bring the tablets home this year.

"I know this is just the pilot program ... but one day it would be awesome if the future students could take them home," said junior Sam Brogioli. "In a world that is consumed by technology, I feel that it's imperative that we learn to use the technology so we don't fall behind."

The teachers and students were hoping for a School Committee vote to expand the program next school year, but Chair Geoff Swett did not allow it on Wednesday.

School Committee member Rhonda Veugen was ready to vote, however.

"The thing that strikes me about this pilot is it really is promoting individual learning," she said, noting that the students all talked about what excited them about learning with the iPad.  "If this doesn't make the argument louder than any other argument that's been made before ... we have to get more techonolgy into our school system."

Swett said the School Committee would be taking a hard look at the program.

"There are lots of questions," he said, noting that the School Committee would have to see increases in test scores, among other measurements of achievement, in order to determine whether the program moves foward. "I'm a huge enthusiast of this project, but we have a responsibility to make sure we use money wisely."

The teachers expressed optimism about seeing positive changes in scores.

And, fourth-grader Sohrob noted, iPads could end up saving the school district money.

"The [iPad] might save money for our schools," he told the School Committee with a smile, "because all of our learning tools at school are pretty much on this $399 item!"