9/18/2009 10:00:00 PM Lesson plans come alive at Yavapai
County Education Fair
Matt Hinshaw/ The Daily Courier Tami Omnahau, her daughter Destiny Savage, and their friend Samantha Self listen to Ray Star, a fifth-grade student at Granville Elementary School dressed as Sacagawae talk about the life and history of her character at the Prescott Rodeo Grounds Thursday during the Western Yavapai County Education Fair. Granville fifth graders performed as different historical figures for their American Wax Museum display.
The first Western Yavapai County Education Fair Thursday evening attracted students from Bagdad to Mayer.
Cara Greer, a fifth-grader from the Bagdad School District, demonstrated and encouraged visitors to write a diamonte poem. The name diamonte comes from the shape of the seven-line poem - one noun, two adjectives, three verbs, a four-word sentence, three verbs, two adjectives and a name.
She said her class learned how to write diamonte poems "not too long ago. We thought maybe not too many people would know how to write them."
Fifth-graders from Granville Elementary School in the Humboldt School District presented a wax museum. Ashley Trefethen said her teacher suggested the idea. The students dressed as historical figures, and when people pressed a "button" on their hand, the "wax figures" talked about who they were and why they were famous.
Trefethen said students researched the history of their person, wrote their own script and provided their own costumes.
Fair coordinator Valerie Stringer said more than 30 school programs participated in the event. Students came from the Prescott, Humboldt, Chino Valley, Mayer, Seligman, Skull Valley and Bagdad school districts, as well as Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, to demonstrate what they are learning in the classroom.
Stringer said the purpose of the educational fair was to "showcase students through interactive products. It is not our intent to compete with the Yavapai County Fair where student work is on display. We wanted to show students actually demonstrating what they are learning."
Stringer said students, teachers, principals and district superintendents decided what to bring to represent their schools.
Students filled the Freeman Building, the Mackin Building and the grandstands at the Prescott Rodeo Grounds with wildly diverse demonstrations including welding, roping, poetry, music, stargazing, forensics, portrait art and blood pressure checks.
Organizers estimated that about 2,500 people attended the event.
Parents, family members, school board members, community members and friends wandered the rodeo grounds watching and trying the many interactive displays.
Prescott resident Tina Coolbaugh, whose children attend PUSD schools, thought the education fair was "very nice. It is great for kids to see their work on display and good for parents to be with their kids and see their work."
The Yavapai County Education Service Agency sponsored the education fair.
County School Superintendent Tim Carter was grinning from ear to ear as he talked about the success of the event.
"We are extremely pleased. We have been working on this for more than a year. The focus of the fair is to show kids in action, to show kids doing things," Carter said.
Carter said the Verde Valley has sponsored an education fair for years.
"We stole one thing from the Verde side, which was interactive activities rather than 'here's a booth,'" Carter said. "It is great to see young people demonstrating what they are learning. What is really great is that there are kids from all over."
Carter said he was happy with the outpouring of support, especially from the smaller school districts. He said the smaller districts do not have as many opportunities to demonstrate student work as larger districts.
"It's been fun watching people enjoy what is happening in education," Carter said.
