Students prepare for technology fair

Twenty-two students at Loris Middle School participated in the school’s Technology Fair held on Thursday, March 15, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the school gymnasium.

The students select a category they want to create from a list provided by Amber LaSalle, the school’s media specialist. The projects at the fair included robotics, digital photography, animation, mobile app creation and video editing. They began working on their presentation beginning in November 2018 with the deadline of March 15, 2019.

One team made up of three sixth graders, Riley Downey, Kyra McLain and Brenda Sandokal, selected the Stop Motion for their presentation. Downey said, “We wanted to choose the Robotics presentation, but that was already taken.” The three explained that they take Lego figures and move them a millimeter at a time taking photographs, after that they put the photos together in a software program to make an animation video. Sandokal said, “We began our project with play-dough to make our names appear in motion.” With a little creativity they were able to create a movie with background music. McLain said, “The Lego movie has been so popular we chose the Lego people to portray people in motion.”

All the projects showed that the students studied and worked diligently through their recess time and lunchtime to create their projects to show to the three-panel judges. The items used for the presentation were provided by LaSalle that included the software. Lego blocks and people, paper, cardboard and IPods.

Another group presented Stop Motion as their project. The 7th graders worked together every opportunity they had. The students, Selena Lee, Kaitlyn Malphrug and Rodriguez “Rod” Purcha, are best friends who do everything together including being creative. Their project received many positive comments from the judges; they were asked questions of what software they used to create the video and how the concept of their project began. “I used the Final Cut Pro software to create the movie,” said Purcha, “each of us fit together we each have our creative venues to express ourselves. I just happened to have the software knowledge to work on the movie.” This group was unique as they explained each part of the process. There are tweaks that will be made to the project before they attend the Technology Fair.

Each group is recognized for their talents, ideas and planning to complete their project. The archery group created a video to assist the school’s team to be more successful in competitions. Another group created the app to learn to play the viola. They want to help others learn about the instrument.
LaSalle said, “The ten teams have a choice in 12 categories to present to the judges today,” she continued. “The students are able to use their talents to be creative and they learn teamwork.” She expressed how successful the students have been in completing their projects on time. She further stated that the students have a little under a month to make suggested changes to their presentations before the big event.

The judges chose the top five projects presented Thursday. Digital Photography, Marley Durant and Kylee King; Mobile App Creation, Helena Harrelson, Camryn Sandler and Raina Gerald; Video Editing, Jada Hemingway, Jaiah Hemingway and Donnasia Patrick; Animation, Seth Kwiatkowski; and Robotics, Fabiola Temis, Airyonna Prosser and Phoenix Vanness. These students will attend the Technology Fair in Myrtle Beach where they will compete for awards with all Horry County Schools.

Elementary and high school students may enter two submissions per category per division. The middle schools may enter three submissions per category per division. This year Horry County Schools in primary grades, pre-K through first grade, has 22 entries, elementary grades 2-3 have 22 entries total. Intermediate grades 4-5 has 22 entries, middle schools grades 6-8 have a total of 33 entries and high school 9-10 and 11-12 each have 22 entries. LaSalle stated that all groups making a presentation at the fair will go to the HCS Technology Fair.

The categories presented are as follows. Animation is defined as any original project that consists of a sequence of images of the motion of objects to create a video (Stop Motion). Mobile Apps is any app that is specifically developed for a mobile device and can be developed for any mobile operating system. Robotics is autonomous machines engineered and programmed by the student from their own concept and design.
Horry County Schools will host the 10th Annual Technology Fair on Wednesday, April 10, at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. The doors are open to the public from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Awards are presented at 3:30 p.m.