Children’s creativity blossoms during Innovation Week
By Suzanne Dean
Publisher
11-21-2019
One elementary student designed his own candy dispensing machine. Two middle school students made a movie trailer (essentially a preview) of “Alice in Wonderland” as a horror show. A high school student created a model of what he called a “Shield around the world,” a drone that could save the day in all sorts of natural disasters.
These projects are just a small sample of class and individual creativity that blossomed during Innovation Week Nov. 4-8 in the seven schools in the South Sanpete School District.
April Christensen, district technology specialist, explained that the idea was to put aside regular class work for one week and allow students to choose something they wanted to learn about.
At Ephraim Elementary and Gunnison Valley Elementary, some classes as a whole did projects. But the majority of projects at all the schools were done by small teams or individual students.
The students researched their topic and created something reflecting their research that could be presented in digital form.
Innovation Week is a “personalized learning experience,” Christensen said. “The biggest thing we wanted the kids to do was not be confined to a box.”
Gunner Barclay, a student at Manti Elementary School, made a model of a machine that could dispense M&Ms and Skittles.
Using I-Movie, software found on school IPADs, Halle Pollack and Kaitlyn Fugal, students at Gunnison Valley Middle School, made the “Alice” trailer.
Jordan Durtschi, a junior at Manti High, was the one who did the “Shield around the world.” According to Jordan, the device would be able to find bodies of people killed in a disaster faster than ground searchers.
Students created videos on a range of topics including lasers, bullying, a model of a cell and a wind-turbine-powered car.
Another option was creating a Keynote presentation. Keynote is Apple software comparable to Power Point for PCs.
Projects were judged at the schools last week. Every elementary student who created or helped create a project got a certificate of participation. Secondary winners received award certificates and were recognized at a school board meeting last Friday, Nov. 15.
Prior to the board meeting, many of the secondary projects were displayed in the lunchroom at Gunnison Valley High School. Christensen said there was a good turnout of parents and students to view the projects.
Class project winners and project titles were:
Ephraim Elementary
Kindergarten, Jennie Christensen’s class, Paper Scrap Monsters; first grade, Janet Jordan’s class, Marble Run; second grade, Janalee Worthington’s class, “Turkey Traps;” third grade, Sarah Parry’s class, “Moon Phases;” fourth grade, Lindsay Sterner’s class, “Desert Habitat.”
Gunnison Valley Elementary
First grade, Ashley Nelson’s class, Techno Weather Wizards.
Individual and team winners were:
Ephraim Elementary
Porter Daniels, fifth grade, “Sharks Keynote.”
Gunnison Valley Elementary
Rawlee Coats, third grade, “Blue Heelers;” Lauren Wilden, Averie Bardsley, Gracie Owens and Jayda Mattson, fourth grade, “Mammals;” Colby Nay, fifth grade, video about pigs.
Manti Elementary
Amber Keisel, kindergarten, Creation from Geobuilders; Mckenzie Adams and Kaydence Anderson, first grade, Camper created from STEM tools; Lane Davis, second grade, rocket model; Rylee Johnson, third grade, Keynote story; Gunner Barclay, fourth grade, candy dispenser; Gracie Gerber, fifth grade, nature painting.
Ephraim Middle School
Stella Quakenbush, sixth grade, time lapse sketch; Lane Cox, seventh grade, baseball pinball machine; Monisha Mann, eighth grade, digital drawing.
Gunnison Valley Middle
Talan Dyreng and Ryder Coats, sixth grade, “The Snack Slider,” Power Point; Brittyn Jones and Erica Hingham, seventh grade. “Poem and Cookies on a Plate” (movie); Halle Pollock and Kaitlyn Fugal, “Alice” movie trailer using I-Movie.
Manti High
Gideon Watkins, junior, a full book based off of Scott Cawthon’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s Franchise; Jordon Durtschi, junior, “Shield around the world;” Alison Olson, freshman, book in Spanish; Taylor Palmer, junior, and Emma Bean, senior, psychology project, “Social Media Evaluation.”
Gunnison Valley High
Gage and Aubrey Peterson, freshman, “Trash Turkey” scrap metal art; Ben Sorenson, sophomore, “Cow Target,” scrap metal plinker; Koler Ludvigson and Dylan Anderson, sophomores, “Randy the Reindeer,” scrap metal art; Wyatt Walthers, sophomore, “Dance Bot,” animated comic.
