04/01/2006
Middle school students show off Power Point skills
By: Jessica Selby

Poster boards and construction paper creations have become a thing of the past. Today's students are experimenting more with technologically-advanced tools like Power Point and other computer-based programs when assigned school projects.

Rebecca Studley, Paige Cookson and Jessica Guglielmetti, three students from Flat River Middle School, recently tested theirs skills with Power Point in a competition at the Rhode Island Mall on March 18 sponsored by the Technology Student Association.

The students were asked to create a Power Point presentation that would attract more visitors to the mall.

Shortly after the students arrived at the mall at 10 a.m. that Saturday morning, with nothing more than a digital camera, a portable memory stick and a laptop computer, they were ushered into the mall center where a panel of judges provided them with the necessary instructions.

The Flat River students, and approximately 10 other teams from around the state, were told that they had two hours to snap the pictures they needed, gather the information they wanted, write the text to accompany the photos and input it into the computer in order to create a 90-second self-timed Power Point presentation.

The students had to stay inside the mall to gather their information. There were restrictions on what could and could not be photographed and the time limit also loomed over their heads.
"It was really hard at first because we didn't know where to begin," Studley said.

Once they developed a game plan, however, the girls said they didn't waste any time before cracking down.

They took pictures of the items sold inside the Silver Dragon, a collectibles store inside the Rhode Island Mall, the Kay Jeweler's sign and a games store. Each photo had a small amount of text that accompanied it. The girls used short but catchy sentence fragments to get their point across.

"They told us to use catchy phrases and ideas that, if it would be used for something like a commercial and someone would watch it, it would make them want to go to the mall," Cookson said.

When the bell rang signaling the end of the competition, the girls said they felt confidant with their finished product. Cookson called out their title as second place winners before the judges even announced it, her teammates said.

"We are going to get second place because I demand it," Cookson said she said as they twirled their thumbs waiting for the judges to make the final announcement.
One hour later, the judges emerged with the word. They announced that the team from Flat River Middle placed second and Cookson, her teammates and her classroom teacher, Rebecca Horton, said they were all very excited.

"To me this is a huge accomplishment and it should be for them, too," Horton said. "This is all information that they have obtained on their own and they got second place competing against students that take a class like this in school. I haven't even had two of these girls in my class yet."

The girls walked away from the competition with a trophy and bragging rights.