Feature article

STEM Fair puts technology on display

Article by Tammy Lane
March 11, 2008

Fayette County’s upcoming STEM Fair will showcase the technology skills of K-12 students from across the district.
  Visitors can watch students’ presentations, tour interactive project displays, enjoy student-made videos and peruse their digital art Saturday morning at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School.
  “The neatest thing is seeing elementary school students doing applied technology at levels usually reserved for much older kids, and them not even realizing they are doing so,” said Terrance Johnson, the STLP (Student Technology Leadership Program) contact at Millcreek Elementary. “We will showcase some good artwork as well as demonstrate the (LEGO) robot we built.
  “I think FCPS students will ultimately do better in math and science as they are thinking more abstractly about technology and using it to solve problems,” he added.
  Melissa Moore, his counterpart at Picadome Elementary School, said her students have taken digital pictures of each other and modified them using Image Composer, Kid Pix or Photoshop.
  “It was amazing to view the creativity the students used. Each student used a different special affect. The diversity was quite interesting,” she said.
  Among other highlights:
• Jessie M. Clark seventh-graders will share a virtual field trip to Chicago;
• Southern Middle School students will showcase movie special effects;
• Henry Clay High School students will explain how they podcast school announcements.
The annual STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) Fair will feature more than 60 school exhibits, set up for judging in the Dunbar gym. Awards will be presented at 11:30 a.m.
  “It’s an opportunity for students to show the technology they’ve been working with for the whole year, and they get to see what other schools are doing and sometimes develop new interests,” said Julie Gaskin, the district’s STLP coordinator.
  Students also may take pictures of other schools’ projects and report back to their group on ideas they might want to try in the future.
  For instance, youngsters could be attracted to Eastside Technical Center’s booth, where high school students will have built and programmed sumo-bots and soccer-bots that play each other.
  “It allows them to envision what opportunities lie ahead for them,” Moore said.

     Printer friendly view