Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
When the lights go up this weekend during the rodeo show at the Michiana Event Center in Shipshewana, 10 Edgewood Middle School students will be part of the crew making it happen.
The eighth-grade students from Abbi Richcreek’s Computer Science for Makers & Innovators class will be traveling to the event center today, Wednesday and Thursday to learn about programming with lighting and sound with professionals. Then at the shows Friday and Saturday night, they will be assisting with the production.
Computer Science for Makers & Innovators is a Project Lead The Way class new to Edgewood and Lakeview middle schools, Richcreek said.
“But I found this opportunity for an enrichment for half of the class if they chose to, which they did,” she said.
Last spring, Richcreek worked with the same event producer, John Malone, when two of her students programmed Rowdy, a Nao robot, to ride a horse at the event center in an attempt to get into the Guinness Book of World Records as the first robot to ride a horse. However, the feedback they received from that was that the feat had to be measurable – like the fastest or the smallest – and not the first of something. They’re retrying to get the feat into the World Records as the smallest robot to ride a horse.
“So I worked with this producer last spring. I told him about a new class I was teaching this fall, computer science. Didn’t really think anymore about it. He called me up this summer and asked if I’d be interested in having my students do a hands-on, real-life experience, and I said ‘of course.’ So we’ve kind of been talking about it since the summer and the specifics,” Richcreek said.
Malone said, “Because we’re developing these equestrian arts and these performances at the Michiana Event Center, we just feel it’s important to … these kids are amazing as far as students of Abbi and the students she has … so we just feel they are more than capable of operating different equipment and being part of (the show), which is just adding all these different cool elements to our event, whether it’s in lighting or all different types of special effects, which we are going to be incorporating more and more to our events. So we felt that since they are very capable of programming and robotics as well, that we’ve kind of solicited them to use this as a learning experience. And as we’re developing our equestrian shows, we certainly would like them to participate and grow with us, to the point where we’re going to be some pretty amazing things in 2020 and so forth.”
Richcreek said she talked to the professional lighting and sound person who travels the country to work on different productions about the goals of the class and how he can give real-world experience to the students.
“I just want to give my students the best experience, which is with this production. It’s hands-on, it’s real life and it’s real world,” Richcreek said.
Students will be hooking up lights for the horse show today, and then programming the lights and sounds on Wednesday with the various acts. On Thursday after school, Richcreek said they’ll be assisting the professionals with the dress rehearsal in whatever way is needed.
“My students will actually help program to make sure the show will run as planned on Friday and Saturday,” she said.
The opportunity was limited to 10 students because some of it is after school and not everyone can go, and Richcreek is driving the mini bus which has limited seating. Richcreek will be taking photos during the activity and she and her students will be talking daily about their progress in class to “share the journey” with the other students in the class who were unable to go.
One of the students taking part in this week’s experience is Owen Stevens, who was one of the two students who programmed Rowdy last spring. He said at his church he operates some of the audiovisual equipment so this hands-on learning experience will give him more insight into lighting and sound. “It’ll be nice to see how everything works and things plugged in, and things like that,” he said.
Stevens said he’d also like to see how a professional runs things.
Each production at the Michiana Event Center is a different show. This fall’s show is “The Masquerade of the Horse.” It will feature Dan James from “Australia’s Got Talent,” as well as former stars from Dixie Stampede, Barnum & Bailey Circus, Cavalia along with other performing artists. Show times are 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Doors open at 6 p.m., with the preshow starting at 6:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased through MichianaEvents.com, at the door or call the ticket hotline at 269-625-0364.
Malone said the Edgewood students will be working with some of the world’s top professionals, like Dan James who was on the Australian team for the World Equestrian Games. “He’s probably one of the top equestrian, horse handlers, trainers and performers in the world,” Malone said.
“We have some of the top notch equestrian performing artists from around the world that will be coming to this event. So the (students) will be working with the best performers, and again their job may be everything from props to bringing it out to assisting them and so on and so forth, everything from curtains to lighting, you name it,” he said.
During this weekend’s performances, the show will give Richcreek’s students credit for assisting. Over 2,000 people will be in attendance each night to see the end result.
Richcreek said, “I just think it’s important that students are exposed to different jobs and real-life experiences as early as possible so it can help them with their future career plans.”
