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They stood tall, looked directly at the audience and clearly introduced each other and explained their project. Then the students from Mrs. Corson's second-grade class at Harrison Elementary calmly answered questions from the judges.
Saturday, at EdCom Expo, held this year at Warsaw Community High School, more than 800 students took part in presentations on projects they had spent weeks, even months, researching.
All the students marched into the Tiger Den for the opening ceremony Saturday morning. They were grouped by school and carried their school flags as Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent Dr. David McGuire announced each school.
Assistant superintendent Sandra Hess welcomed the students, judges, volunteers and audience, saying, "Today we are here as a community of learners."
After the opening remarks, individual presentations began in assigned classrooms.
The 14 Harrison second-graders spent five months on their project. They gave a month-by-month explanation of how they had developed their presentation - first by visiting the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, then by learning to use a computer software program, writing descriptions of animals, drawing pictures of the animals on computer, recording the descriptions and using the school's computer lab to put everything together.
What did they learn by working as a group, one of the judges asked.
"Be patient and wait your turn," one of the students answered.
Down the hall, two Leesburg Elementary girls gave a video presentation on the paintings of Andrew Wyeth. The video, set to music, showed many of Wyeth's watercolors. Information scrolling across the screen gave the titles and dates and explained what the paintings were about.
After the video, the girls answered questions from the judges, explaining how they made the video and that it took them about two months to make.
More than 35 presentations were scheduled every half-hour on such subjects as "Harriet Tubman and Life Skills," "Indiana's Contributions to Aviation," "The Harmful Effects of Smoking" and "Cartoon Version of the Iliad."
The event was coordinated for the third year by Dick and Nancy Rooker, WCS teachers. According to the Rookers, EdCom is designed to give students of all ages a chance to explore a topic in depth, to show what they've learned and to speak in front of an audience.
