Kadena Middle School eighth-grader Shelby Hedges shows off her PowerPoint presentation on eating disorders. Her project, with more than 60 others, will be highlighted during the school’s technology showcase Thursday in the school’s Information Center. (Fred Zimmerman / Stars and Stripes)
KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — High-tech student work will go on display this week at Kadena Middle School, demonstrating how students incorporate the latest technologies into their classes.
A technology showcase has been scheduled Thursday from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the school’s Information Center. Susan Paul, the school’s information specialist, said about 65 computers will display everything from PowerPoint presentations to science projects to book reports via the accelerated reader program.
Paul said teachers at the school nominated student projects to be highlighted. The projects were completed “within the confines of the regular curriculum,” she said. “Some students just confound you [with their advanced level of their work]. I learn something from these students every day.”
While not every project is “flash and glitz,” Paul said, the students apply the technology to their world. She said some of the book reports that students have completed are so good, she’ll use them for book talks she holds with classes.
One student’s project was put together so well, Paul said she may recommend using it in health classes.
Shelby Hedges, eighth-grader, assembled a PowerPoint presentation on eating disorders. She said in picking the project, she wanted to show something that applied to students in her grade level. Using the computer to put the presentation together took her about 90 minutes, she said, including adding photos showing the damage that anorexia can cause.
Hedges said if she hadn’t used computer technology to complete her report, she would have had to “find the information in books, cut out pictures and paste them on a board.” That old-fashioned way, she estimated, would have taken several days instead of hours.
Arisa Adams and Allie Arick said they weren’t even aware their PowerPoint presentation on the “Taiga Coniferous Forest” had been chosen for display. Adams and Arick were given a choice of eight habitats for a science project; they chose the forest. Arick said completing the work took just several class periods. “It’s nice to be recognized,” she added.
When Paul summed it up, the teacher in her came out.
“I’m impressed with where the students are,” she said, “but I want them to go further.”
