Cape students show high-tech projects in Capitol

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Class projects produced at three Cape Girardeau schools were showcased in the Capitol on Wednesday as top examples of technology-driven learning.

Ten local students represented their classmates in displaying their efforts for lawmakers as part of the annual Show-Me Techknowledge event. The Cape Girardeau School District was the only one with three projects picked to participate.

Pam Dumey's fifth-grade class at Central Middle School dubbed its project "Meriwether Lewis Slept Here." It focused on the explorer's visit to Cape Girardeau on Nov. 23, 1803.

The PowerPoint display included historical information about the visit along with period research on life at the time, including popular food and types of music.

The second-grade class of Becky Hicks at Blanchard Elementary School chose the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight on Dec. 17, 1903, as its computerized project, which included the desktop publishing of a newspaper outlining key achievements by the duo.

Fun with learning

Delaney Mattox, one of the students representing her class in Jefferson City, said she had fun with the lesson.

"We learned that the Wright brothers created the first plane and that they also built bikes, studied birds and made kites," Delaney said.

Clippard Elementary School first-grade teacher Brenda Randolph brought members of her class from last year to present their interactive project on the Iditarod.

That class, now in second grade, used computers to daily track the progress of participants in the 1,000-mile-long dog sled race across the frozen expanse of Alaska.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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