World's Fair
On Thursday, May 24, the Freshman Geography students, level one and two, showcased their World’s Fair projects. These students have been working hard since October, knowing their finished piece would be counted as their class final. As one of those students, I can proudly say that this night represented all of our hard work and turned out to be a great night.
As guests walked into the school, they were greeted by Mrs. Courtemanche and Mrs. Rusconi, the two freshman social studies teachers, with a welcoming smile. At the front table, ballots and passports that were to be used throughout the night were passed out. The passports were used by guests to mark each country’s representative booth that they visited by receiving a unique student created stamp in their book. As for the ballots, guests could select which country they thought was the best fit for the categories of best food, most geographically informative, most interactive, and most creative. These ballots were collected at the end of the night -- the winners receiving recognition for their success and hard work. With over 200 people voting, the winners included Kassidy Hambrecht for best food, Ethan Ratzer for most creative, Emi Albert for most interactive, and Kailee Dickinson for most geographically informative.
“Many students were deeply involved in the project and worked extremely hard and created a project that was informative, creative, and displayed all of their hard work. It was definitely a close call for all of the winners,” Mrs. Courtemanche relayed, “we couldn’t tell who won until every vote was counted. It was that close.” There were also close results for the runners up, and many honorable mentions who had incredible projects as well.
In order to make this night as memorable as it was, a lot of hard work went into planning, setting up, and cleaning up after the evening was over. Numerous people helped the students prepare in their creative processes, their writing and editing of their texts, and gathering resources for the event. There were also many volunteers during the night including PAL members, upperclassmen, members of the media production class, teachers, and the custodial staff who all helped to ensure things ran smoothly. Before the night of the World’s Fair, students who were taking part in it had the option to stay after school to help set up for extra credit. This extra credit opportunity took place for three days, and saw about 20 kids take part in it.
“The students are very invested. I honestly believe students would’ve shown up either way, even without extra credit because of their motivation in their work,” Mrs. Courtemanche explained.
Overall, the feedback for the night was overwhelmingly positive. Parents were extremely impressed and proud of their students, and the students were proud of themselves too. Throughout this project, students were able to learn about different countries and peoples’ lifestyles, and places they may never be able to visit in real life. Additionally, the process helped students become more familiar with research skills and working with large projects.
“This project has helped me improve on my time management and organization skills. Without them, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to get through this project,” Erin Holt, a level 2 Freshman student laughed. Many students also agree, as the project had to be very well thought out and creative. Students excelled at this as they showed them off the night of the World’s Fair. Kids were also not limited to the traditional project setup. Some dressed up in the traditional clothing of their country, or played traditional forms of music; others brought in extra materials such as a snow cone machine, a food cart, videos, a homemade water cycle machine, mementos from family trips, and many other types of artifacts and display items. It culminated an outstanding and memorable night for all.
