Students Demonstrate Their Technology Prowess

WNC EdNet - Writing on smartboardCherokee Central Schools were the venue recently for an inspiring student competition in which students demonstrated technology applications they had developed, and they battled for scholarship money and bragging rights.  The Civil War, a shuttle launch, the curvature of the earth, and a roller coaster design were among the applications presented at the second Instructional Technology Awareness Conference sponsored by the Western Region Education Service Alliance and supported by Cherokee Preservation Foundation and Cherokee Central Schools.

Students from Cherokee Central Schools and schools in Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Clay, Cherokee, Graham and Swain counties each had up to 15 minutes to present their applications to a panel of teaching interns from Western Carolina University.  There were three categories of competition — content-driven or class-related assignments involving individual students, school- or community-service projects involving individual students or student groups, and independent projects based on hobbies or special interests of a student or group of students.  Thirty-three students competed, and another 50 attended the conference.

Prizes in each of the three categories included $750, $500 and $250 scholarships for first, second and third place, respectively. Winners included:

Content-driven, Class-related Projects

1st Place, Jonathon Dunford at Macon County Early College, who developed a website about the Civil War for his U.S. History class that has since been expanded to include the Reconstruction Period and is being used by other students.

2nd Place, Jacob Tallent at Franklin High School, who created a video about a space shuttle launch for his Scientific Visualization class used a 3-D modeling program.

3rd Place, Katie Moninghoff at Macon County Early College, who developed a Photo Story to defend her position that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone qualifies as an epic.

School- or Community-Service Projects

1st Place, Kenneth Hill of Murphy High School, whose Honors Physics class worked to capture an image of the curvature of the earth by constructing a high altitude imaging system capable of being launched on a weather balloon. The system included a digital camera to record data and a GPS to track and retrieve the device. The device was retrieved with all electronics intact and over 400 images of its ascent and descent. 

2nd Place, Anthony Huber of Haywood Early College, who created a podcast radio station for his U.S. History class. The station includes news, songs, public service announcements, commercials, advice segments, and other creative ways to present course content. Segments are recorded as MP3 files and compiled with the addition of music and sound effects. The completed podcast is posted on the class website and can be accessed by other students, in the school or around the state.

3rd Place, Lesleigh Putnam of Haywood Early College, who     created a podcast radio station for Civics/Economics class. The station utilizes the same components and technical aspects as the U.S. History station, but presents and reviews concepts from the N.C. Civics/Economics curriculum. Posted on the school’s website, it is accessible by other students.

Hobby and Special Interest Projects

1st Place, Joseph El-Khouri at Tri-County Early College, who created an iPhone application using iWebKit that allows sharing of information about his school.

2nd Place, Tyler Williams at Robbinsville High School, who was introduced to digital art through an Art II class in school and subsequently used Photoshop to create an art piece from a collage of various images. Now he uses Photoshop to create unique photographic images that make artistic statements.

3rd Place, the Engineering Group at Swain County High School, which learned the engineering design process and then used it to create a rollercoaster using K’NEX pieces.

Cherokee Preservation Foundation has been a sponsor of both WRESA Instructional Technology Awareness Conferences following the $1.7 million of grant monies it provided to help create WNCEdNet, a fiber optics network that includes nearly 60 schools in western North Carolina.  With the broadband network in place, the next step taken by WRESA and its partners has been to help teachers understand and utilize the technology that WNCEdNet makes possible. The recent competition shows how students can serve as technology mentors to their teachers.